NEW ALBUM: The Elwins – Play For Keeps
When listening to new albums, I often don’t start at the beginning but jump to song number three or scan the titles to see what takes my fancy. And so, when listening to The Elwins’ just released album Play For Keeps, I was drawn to So Down Low and liked the playful song from the spot. Next song I chose was Backing Up which faintly reminded me of The Kooks (especially Matthew Sweney’s vocals) and that was the point when I wanted to know more and started to listen to the album from track 1 to track 12, the last.
The Elwins’ Play For Keeps, their second album after And I Thank You is playful, upbeat indie pop with interesting lyrics and arrangements. The Elwins are Matthew Sweeney (vocals, guitar) and Travis Stokl (drums) who initially formed the band as a duo in high school. Later they got joined by Feurd Moore (guitar, synths) and Christopher Shannon (bass). After self-releasing their album And I Thank You in 2012, Christopher Shannon left the band and Frankie Figliomeni took over on bass. In 2013, the four piece from Ontario, Canada got signed by Hidden Pony Records and released their second full length album Play For Keeps in February 2015.
I am glad that I didn’t start with Bubble, the first song on the album, because it maybe is my least favorite and I know, I would not have listened to the whole thing had I heard that track first. And then I would have missed out on the record’s true show stopper: Sexual Intellectual! Boah! What a gem of a song. Here’s hope that the band and their label plan on creating a killer video for this stand-out song. It’s upbeat, bouncy, highly catchy and possesses all the traits for a mega-monster hit! I’ve been playing it on repeat for days now… So, if you can get yours hands on this album, do yourself a favor and listen to Sexual Intellectual, because “There’s something about you, that’s drawing me to you”.
The only currently available video is an official lyrics video but that’s pretty cool too. It’s also my second favorite song on the album so check it out:
Socials