Lucky Elephant - Star Sign Trampoline Album Review

Review of Lucky Elephant's album Star Sign Trampoline released through Sunday Best.

Isle of Wight dwellers Lucky Elephant have an album title that sounds like it was picked out of a tombola, but it really does sound lovely when you say it out loud. So as you'd expect, this playful lot kicks off with a big slice of quirky, creative pop. Both 'Lucky Elephant' and 'Edgar' are shiny and upbeat, and you are quickly lulled into the security of happy nonsense.

But not everything is as bright and breezy as it first seems. Lucky Elephant have a more pensive side too, for instance the bleak funereal stomp of 'Modern life, changing people' hints at a world weariness that you wouldn't have suspected of them just moments before. 'The Pier' too seems wrapped up in personal sadness, the loss of a hometown's livelihood to a global imprint of 'cold glass and cheap steel.' This track is a hidden gem- lyrically it is simple but quietly expressive, and his Gallic vocals styles are both distinctive and charming.

The more you listen, the more difficult it difficult to succinctly sum up Lucky Elephant. Just as you think you've got them pinned down, they're off in another unforeseen direction. Star Sign Trampoline is a heady mixture of so many moods and different instruments, they are quite the chameleons. But their off-kilter sound is strangely interesting and never tedious, if you can manage to keep up with the quicksilver mood.

Natalie Kaye