War Elephant

Rate It! Avg: 4.5 (526 ratings)
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War Elephant album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 14   Total Length: 47:46

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Amelia Raitt

eMusic Contributor

Amelia Raitt is a former writer for the television program Mr. Belvedere and has been writing about pop music of all colors and stripes for eMusic since 2005. S...more »

11.11.08
Deer Tick, War Elephant
2008 | Label: Partisan Records / IODA

Fresh-faced John McCauley essentially is Deer Tick: the gently rocking country-folk backing is just wallpaper for his surprisingly weathered voice, front-and-center on War Elephant. There's a lo-fi rattle here, like McCauley and co. just stepped out behind the barn to knock out these fourteen tracks before bed. Classic country (think Hank Sr.) is the primary inspiration, both in form and theme (see "These Old Shoes," "Baltimore Blues No. 1" and, well, the whole album, really).

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Bravo

ottozap

Great album. "Ashamed" "Christ Jesus" so many great songs. And the album "Black Dirt Sessions" also a winner.

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Excellent

deadrise

Download them all. Great album.

user avatar

Worth the download

shawnbrass

This is some good stuff in this album. I'm not going to lie - I skip some tracks when listening.

user avatar

OK album....

KrustyMonkey

Aint my favorite, but it's good enough to buy, add to your collection and drink some lazy beers to on a hot summer day.

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Cool.

Robbie-Harwich

I actually first heard about this "underground" bar band from Brian Williams, the news anchor. Album stnadouts are "Dirty Dishes", "Baltimore Blues" and "Long Time". Will give one a nice intro to this band. Nice album, but definitely not for those who prefer optimistic songs: you won't find 'em. But John McCauley has an amazing voice!

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A future classic?

christoir

Wasn't expected much from this album. But it really surprised me. Somewhere between The Rolling Stones, Ryan Adams and the Waterboys... Highly recommended...

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One of the best I've dloaded from emusic

EMUSIC-009E750D

War Elephant is a solid album that with almost no duds (not a huge fan of the last track). I've let this one loop through for multiple listens more than a few times. The music is solid and the vocals/lyrics just fit.

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Old Souls in young bodies

boon52

These guys have the grit and melody down. I saw them with the Felice Bros (AN AMAZING BAND) they surprised me with their sloppy infectious country vibe. If you like this, get the new record, too.

user avatar

Inconsistent?

stephenjhicks

I downloaded on the strength of hearing and enjoying the track 'Art isn't Real'. Whilst the rest of the album isn't bad per se, it is, in my opinion, stylistically diverse to the point of slight non-cohesion; It spans alt-country (mostly), rock ('Not so Dense') and cabaret ('What Kind of Fool Am I'), with varying success. Three stars.

user avatar

deserves five stars plus!

milesahead03

The best way I can put it is that I have like ~700 CD's worth of music and this is easily a top five. Time will tell if this will stand up to the classics, but I'm confident it will. John McCauly has an astute ear for the masters of rock and has reproduced them with additional style of his own. I'm 40 plus and I enjoy his work because it does mimick the standards like Dylan, the Stones, Neil Young, etc...yet is always fresh and original. I RECOMMEND HIGHLY. I've spent a lot of time searching and buying music that will please like War Elephant and sadly have not come close.

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