Elektric Animals – Head In The Ground

Denver based, Elektric Animals, have a new single out, Head In The Ground, and we’ve been taking a good long listen here at the Send Me Your Ears studio.

Funnily enough, we’d already heard of Elektric Animals because we’d hit the Shazam button whilst listening to the final episode of Shameless and discovered them through their song, Vulnerable Thing. When we spotted the name come up in our reviews pile, we were super excited to take a listen to their latest song.

Head In The Ground has a kind of 80s feel to it. There’s a lot about their music that reminds us of more recent acts; Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood for example, but this particular synth heavy track reminds us of that 80s pop style.

We like the changes in effects on the vocals. Special attention to be drawn, we think, to the line “calling all the suicide lines cos everyone he loves, they never have any time” which has a kind of telephone effect on the vocals which suits the subject matter and gives a deliberate tinny effect to the vocal just for that particular section. The choruses have layered and harmony vocals which help separate out the sections very well, and the rise and fall, instruments coming and going between sections all help to give great separation and help the listener know exactly where they are in the song. We particularly like how the verses drop back to almost nothing with just off beat guitar strums and lead vocals.

We like the reverse effect on the drums in the breakdown leading up to a great guitar solo which we felt was very reminiscent of Nik Kershaw’s – Wouldn’t It Be Good.

The song ends, within a comfortable radio friendly length of 3m18s and wraps things up with some lovely electronic synth pads, giving us just one last burst of 80s nostalgia!

There’s some great use of stereo throughout this track. All of the instruments sit well in the mix and everything is given plenty of space to breathe. We’d suggest a high pass around 40Hz as the kick is peaking at about 35 which most home hi-fi can’t handle. A thin boost at around 55Hz will give the kick a bit more “oomph” and make it feel fuller. Our only other suggestion would perhaps be to give a shelf boost to the top 2 octaves – we suggest this purely because 80s style music is always notably bright, and we feel this will help the song feel even more authentically in this style (if that is indeed what the artist is going for!)

We absolutely love this track. With some superb production, classy musicianship and a really catchy feel to the entire song, Head In The Ground is sure to please fans of Indie pop and rock that combines just a touch of nostalgia together with a really current sound. Great stuff!