Music for Girls

Elliott presented low-key, auteurish blends of folk-rock and psychedelic music on Music for Girls. As is so often for this kind of approach, the touchstone, or at least a convenient point of comparison, is the sort of folk and psychedelia typical of many British artists of the late '60s and early '70s. It's moody yet attractive and pleasant, with the sense that the performer is struggling with feelings of loneliness and alienation, yet determined to communicate with an audience. These tracks were done at home on four-track cassette, and as often occurs in that setup, the percussive tracks are the weakest link, with a mechanical feel at odds with the inherent warmness and wit of this musical genre. It's still attractively melodic and quirky, the combination of chirpiness and dislocated drifting sounding akin to Syd Barrett. That's another overused comparison for such post-1970s ventures, true, but unlike some others in the field, Elliott does not blatantly mimic Barrett or other role models. If you're looking for more indicators as to what might set Elliott aside from others gardening this patch, he sounds more folkily rustic than most of them, sometimes with a psychedelic minstrel feel, although it's hardly an unplugged album, utilizing a good many instruments and multi-tracked voices. And "Prettiest Girl in the World" is lewder than most of the songs you'll hear in this sort of music, too, with its opening line "prettiest girl in the world moved onto my block/I play my cards right, she might suck my cock."