Elastica

Justine Frischmann was without a doubt one of the most iconic figures of the nineties: while being a champion of female emancipation in alternative rock, she never had to chase the forcedly transgressive poses flaunted by her counterparts across the Atlantic, instead maintaining with natural ease a typically British aplomb and composure.

This piece, however, won't waste time describing the considerable independence she showed in her private life: for anyone unfamiliar with these events, the internet is full of exhaustive information about the love triangle involving the singers of Suede, Elastica and Blur. More relevant is to highlight Frischmann's early stint in Suede as rhythm guitarist. Although her personality was inevitably unable to fully express itself, squeezed as it was between the overflowing ones of Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler, living and playing with the pioneers of britpop proved to be a fundamental source of inspiration for her. Moreover, it was precisely during her years with Suede that Frischmann met Justin Welch: initially approached by Anderson and co. to become their drummer, in 1992 he joined forces with the musician who had in the meantime left her original band, forming the first nucleus of Elastica. After a brief contribution from Damon Albarn in the unprecedented role of bassist, the duo brought in Annie Holland and later Donna Matthews full-time, on bass and lead guitar respectively.

The climb toward glory takes its first recorded step in November 1993 with the release of "Stutter". Four major chords played at over one hundred seventy Bpm in a song lasting roughly two and a half minutes make things clear right away: if you're looking for the heirs of English punk outfits such as Buzzcocks or Undertones, but transplanted into Cool Britannia, this is the door to knock on. The guitars fill the frequency spectrum with that breadth typical of Nineties British indie rock, but the track's sound is rougher than that of almost all the male-driven bands of the era. What marks the break from punk-rock past is Justine Frischmann's crystalline timbre, mischievously exposing the male romantic défaillance described in the lyrics, and a chord progression less predictable than the ostentatiously conventional ones used by the generation of Ramones and Sex Pistols.

The next three singles, "Line Up", "Connection" and "Waking Up", showcase the band's abilities even better and reveal further influences… for some, too openly so. In all three songs it's possible to spot similarities with songs by Wire and Stranglers; specifically, the chorus of "Line Up" has an opening hook very similar to that of "I Am The Fly" from "Chairs Missing", "Connection" borrows the riff of "Three Girls Rhumba" from "Pink Flag", initially without crediting it, while the chords and arpeggiated organ of "Waking Up" point directly to "No More Heroes". Dwelling too harshly on this, however, seems ungenerous: proof of this can be found in the accounts of JJ Burnel and Jet Black of the Stranglers regarding "Waking Up". The former shifts the blame onto his publishers for insisting on claiming royalties, saying he isn't bothered by what he calls "plagiarism, as there has always been", while the latter even thanks Frischmann and co. for the tribute.

What should matter to any serious pop or rock fan is how much reworking, even a marked one, can create something new starting from the original source, in terms of sound, attitude, production: "Line Up", released in January 1994, should leave no doubts on that score. It is in fact one of the rare and most successful blends of the nascent britpop (the catchy melody, the cartoonish description of an "empty-headed" girl in the lyrics), the alienated post-punk in vogue in the English alternative underground straddling the 70s and 80s (the clash between the minor vocal melody and the major chords of Matthews' guitar) and alternative rock (the guitars flaunting a skillful yet conspicuous use of distortion and fuzz).

On October 10 of the same year came "Connection", the quartet's single destined to achieve the greatest overall success: seventeenth place on the British chart (it would later be surpassed by "Waking Up"'s thirteenth), but above all a remarkable fifty-third place on the Billboard Hot 100. If, to this day, it remains by far Elastica's most-streamed song, the reason is easy to explain: with all due respect to a cornerstone post-punk band like Wire, the track's power and dynamics are such that they make "Three Girls Rhumba" sound like a sketch, a demo whose potential has finally been fully realized. Notable is the arrangement, which marries techno synthesizers and drum machine with an abrasive post-glam boogie, reminiscent of early Suede.

The last single to precede the debut album, "Waking Up" is the band's britpop masterpiece: Justine Frischmann plays her electric guitar strumming it as if it were acoustic, while Donna Matthews accompanies her, now arpeggiating (in unison with the organ played by Damon Albarn), now strumming downward. Matthews also plays two simple but effective lead sections after the choruses; in the second one, in particular, you can hear a fine interplay, a sort of "double solo", between the two guitarists. The guitar sound is saturated, as can be gathered from the feedback that precedes the entrance of the first verse, but this doesn't mean the production wallows in a raw or unpolished sound. Despite an instantly catchy melody and an uptempo pace, the lyrics offer a stark, and perhaps partly autobiographical, description of a state of chronic depression, of an inability to shoulder the weight of life and its failures:

I would work hard, but I'm lazy

I can't stand the pressure and it's starting to show

In my heart, you know how heavy it weighs on me

A life made of free time isn't a life, you know

Waking up and getting on your feet has never been easy

Who-oh, I think you should know that

Make some tea, put a record on

I would work hard, but I'm lazy

I've got a load of songs, but they're all in my head

I'll get a guitar and a lover who pays my way

If I can't be a star, I won't get out of bed

In March '95, hype around Elastica is through the roof, thanks to a music press obsessively fixated on the emerging glut of britpop bands and ravenous for the gossip surrounding Justine Frischmann. The band's self-titled debut album, exceeding even the rosiest expectations of those involved, achieves staggering sales figures and sets the British record for the fastest-selling debut album in its first week of release. It also finds a certain degree of success in the notoriously tough but lucrative American market, crowning a record that manages the difficult feat of not betraying the expectations built up by its first four singles. If anything, among the fifteen tracks on the tracklist (sixteen on the American edition), it's hard to find a dull moment, so frenetically do the moods and ideas shift and alternate. "Hold Me Now", for instance, toys with dissonance and a deliberately "monotone" vocal delivery; on "Blue", Frischmann and Matthews sing in harmony in keeping with the English pop tradition of every era, from beat rock to shoegaze; "2:1" is marked by a memorable guitar riff with a western flavour; "See That Animal" (originally included only on the US edition of the album, but now permanently featured on it across major streaming platforms) is the moment where Welsch and Holland too get to show off their skills as drummer and bassist, whereas elsewhere, to a distracted ear, they might come across as mere supporting players.

"Indian Song" adds tablas, acoustic guitars and keyboards mimicking the sound of a sitar to the sonic spectrum, conjuring up the Indian psychedelia evoked by the title without ever sounding like a foreign body within the album — if anything, it enriches it with a further shade of colour. "S.O.F.T." and "Never Here" are the only songs to run past the three-and-a-half-minute mark: the first combines noise leanings and dissonant alternative rock (think especially of the lead guitar work) with British pop songwriting, without the latter being swallowed up, striking a balance that even the future lo-fi Blur won't always manage to achieve. The second is a solid slice of post-punk in which every member of the band displays a precision in staying "on the metronome" that in some ways foreshadows the sound of post-punk revival bands the following decade.

Released as the fifth single only for the North American and Australian markets, "Car Song" further develops the fusion of electronics and guitar-driven new wave inaugurated by "Connection": Matthews's guitar is inventive, constantly on the move, perfectly at ease with the "rhythm/lead" style in the vein of Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Graham Coxon (the similarities with the latter's acidic style are especially audible), while the lead synths flesh out the sound of a chorus steeped in an alienated strain of disco. Justine Frischmann's contralto voice plunges the song into an existential spleen, bordering on the sheer weary indifference that defined the artistic mood of Generation X.

Finally, worth noting are a few amusing sketches of pure punk/hardcore energy, all under two minutes long: chief among them the irreverent "Vaseline", in which the singer has a ready-made solution for when you find yourself "stuck like glue".

The album has always won over the majority of critics and would prove an undeniable point of reference for other bands such as Menswear, but such sudden and unexpected success brought no shortage of trouble for the quartet: gruelling tours and relentless promotional duties led to bassist Annie Holland's departure in June 1995. The remaining three members of the band also struggled to cope with the stress, so much so that Frischmann herself, the creative soul of Elastica, spent several years lost to nervous breakdowns and heroin problems.

The band would return to the scene with "The Menace" only five years later, without managing to recapture past glories, at the dawn of a new millennium in which British independent music had by then turned its back on britpop and was ready to embrace the new offerings of the likes of Travis, Muse, Coldplay.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

21/01/2024