[indie-folk, indie-pop] (2021) Elizabeth and the Catapult - since...

(2021) Elizabeth and the Catapult - sincerely, e  Review:  For the project’s fifth release, Elizabeth & the Catapult‘s Elizabeth Ziman delivers a rare full-fledged pandemic album. Released in March of 2021 after about a year of sheltering at home due to the COVID-19 virus(es), the 12-song set wasn’t merely inspired by themes of isolation, hope (and hopelessness), and things like virtual connectivity, it dives into them with both feet, classically trained piano hands, and a heavy dose of no-nonsense wit. Recorded in her living room with long-distance contributions from friends including Adam Minkoff (bass, drums, backing vocals), sincerely, e kicks off with the cautionary “birds and the bees.” A song also concerned with ecological catastrophe, it opens the set with the words, “Read the news in California, hope my family’s okay….” After a melancholy intro, it launches into a section of frenetic piano playing under one of Ziman’s trademark lyrical vocal melodies before circling back again (“Tell your mother not to visit/There’s no more use in going out”). It’s one of several self-referential songs on an album that finds Ziman talking about herself in the third person, writing about songwriting, and, in this case, mentioning later track “together, alone.” Arguably a centerpiece of the album, the sparse and theatrical “together, alone” explores a life lived largely through messaging and social media (“I am just phoning it in/Quite literally….I’m talking without speaking/Together, alone”). Despite the circumstances, however, her songs have a reliably timeless quality, and she touches upon doo wop (“sha-la-la”), melodically complex, Bacharach-like balladry (“this rose comes to life”), and almost Chopin-esque Romantic song (“apocalypse in A major”). Elsewhere, the unlove song “the muse” follows in the footsteps of “You’re So Vain” with its intentionally — cathartically — unnamed antagonist. (That track features former Catapult bandmates Dan Molad and Pete Lalish.) Still, even the horny, clap-along jaunt “thirsty” is ultimately about isolation. “I once wrote a song to the sound of your heartbeat….Do you remember the feeling?”  Tracklist:  01 - birds and the bees 02 - pop the placebo 03 - the muse 04 - thirsty 05 - together, alone 06 - sweet chariot 07 - sha-la-la (feat. Adam Minkoff) 08 - this rose comes to life 09 - apocalypse in A major 10 - the stranger 11 - hope, my sometimes friend 12 - love always wins Media Report:  Genre: indie-folk, indie-pop Format: FLAC Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM Bit rate mode: Variable Channel(s): 2 channels Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz Bit depth: 16 bits