Kendall Elise – Let the Night In (Album Review)

The themes of Let the Night In, the second album, by Kendall Elise are big and universal but the stories in Elise’s lyrics are personal and specific. Musically it moves between intimate acoustic folk, confessional country and blues and upbeat pop and rockabilly whilst always maintaining a consistent sound. Elise’s vocals are powerful, and reflect the emotions of the songs.

The album is released this Friday, 27 August. You can pre-order Let the Night In here: https://smarturl.it/kendallnight

Elsie plays acoustic guitar, and she is supported by the band of John Segovia, electric guitar, Kevin Place electric guitar, Rob Scott, bass guitar and Chris Kemp drums. Dominic Blaazer’s Hammond organ or pump organ adds nuance on a number of the tracks.

The opening track, Honest Hand, has a slow snare shuffle, pronounced bass beat and twangy country guitar. Over this gentle tune the sing-along lyrics explore the importance of honesty and integrity that “… should not be so hard to find.”

The second track is the recently released I Want. Over the five minutes of this intense track the lyrics wrestle with feelings of lust and fear of rejection and the music creates an atmosphere of tension and mystery. Elise’s vocals makes this sound like a confession she is trying hard to tell, and this is reinforced by the use of a Hammond organ and tambourine in the outro.

After opening with two downbeat country songs there is the enjoyable and upbeat cover of Suzi Quatro’s Your Mamma Won’t Like Me. This has fast guitar riffs, pounding drums and high vocals with a loud and clear message, “Don’t take me home honey…” This raucous rockabilly track boldly declares – take me as I am.

The country style returns with Something’s Gotta Give, which is a reflective, thoughtful look at maintaining a relationship “Why Don’t we step back How much further can we bend.” The guitars and light percussion sound as if they are about to breakdown and stop but, like the relationship, they pick up and slowly continue.

There are two solo acoustic folk tracks, the first, Who Kissed Who is a romantic reminisce about how a relationship started. Elise describes one of those debates that couples have about how their relationship really started, “We’ll still argue who kissed who. Was it you or was it me.”  The lyrics affirm this is a relationship that’s still growing, “Every moment I see you, you get brighter to me.” It’s the most whimsical song on the album.

In contrast, the second solo acoustic folk track, A Kingdom, is the darkest song on the album. The lyrics tell of the sad, slow demise of a close friend, “Piece by piece your kind soul became less than whole” as Elise picks her guitar.

The two acoustic tracks are separated by Between Hello and Goodbye.This track captures the sense of coming to grips with loss and grief, that moment after a bereavement when you have not got back to feeling normal, but are acting to others as if you have. It has a warm country sound, with the bass and drums moving the song forward and the strum of the guitar signalling the end of the verse and start of the chorus. The soft vocals of the chorus affirm “I’ll be alright I just need time” but the whistling that follows undercut these words to suggest that emotionally all is not yet okay.

The lyrics of You’ve Got Be A Little Mad are a call to arms to speak up for those less fortunate, “You gotta sing at the dark For those with no voice.”  This is a big, urgent tune with hand claps and Hammond organ accentuating the driving upbeat rhythm of the guitars and galloping drums.

The use of pump organ and slide guitar give a haunting religious sensibility to Make You Shine. This is a tale about an accidental visit by Elise to her father’s grave. The lyrics capture the small details of the present moment that we become more attuned too when our thoughts slow down, “Turn the key until I couldn’t hear The engine’s quiet ticking Drew a long deep breath.”

The album closes with the title track Let The Night In. On this track Elise harmonises with her mother, Cherie Todd, to lament the death of their grandfather and father. The calming guitar work combines with their voices to create a soothing effect for the chorus lyrics, “It’s OK, it’s OK Let the night in” and a quietly powerful end to the album.

Lyrically the tracks capture common feelings by exploring the details of specific personal experiences, in particular when trying to navigate challenging emotional moments. The production of the album and sequence of tracks work well to ensure that the different musical styles complement each other. Despite the themes of the album, it’s an enjoyable album, in particular because of effectiveness of Elise’s vocals to enhance the emotional core of the songs.

Elise was due to start a tour from 28th August to promote the album, and whilst I expect this will be rearranged I will be looking forward to hearing these tracks played live.

The album is released this Friday, 27 August. You can pre-order Let the Night In here: https://smarturl.it/kendallnight

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John Bradbury