ME REX - ‘Giant Elk’ review
ME REX by Benjamin Whitley
Giant Elk is a testament to ME REX's status as one of the most exciting bands in the UK DIY scene. Originally a solo project for Myles McCabe, ME REX evolved into a full band with the addition of Phoebe Cross on drums and Rich Mandell on bass in 2019. Giant Elk is their eagerly awaited full-length debut, following a string of critically acclaimed EPs and their ambitious 2021 project Megabear.
Produced by Mandell, the album was recorded over the course of 2022 at four different studios. While such a lengthy process can often result in fragmented and disjointed albums, Giant Elk is a cohesive and fully formed work. Wrapped in sweeping metaphors of mythology, it is an album about friendship, forgiveness, loss, and joy. The band has distilled everything they've learned from their previous releases, genre-bending music, creative approaches to format structure, and lyrics thick with metaphor and mythology. Unlike ME REX's Megabear project, which was designed to be played on shuffle to create a different piece of music each time, Giant Elk has a cyclical structure. The opening track "Slow Worm" and the closer "Summer Brevis" start and end with the same droning noise, inviting the listener to play the album on repeat, creating an endless cycle that mirrors the ouroboros of ancient myth.
Aforementioned opener "Slow Worm" slowly builds over the first 30 seconds before McCabe's haunting vocals kick in. It has an ethereal quality reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel at their peak. On first listen, you might assume the track is just McCabe's vocals and guitar, but if you listen closely, you'll hear hidden deep in the background a siren call of swirling electronics that invites you in and pulls you deeper into the album. The album's lyrical themes are introduced in an overture through lyrics imbued with mythicism that explore the fallacies of faith healing, the broken state of the world, and growth through grief.
"Infinity Worm" picks up lyrically right where "Slow Worm" closes, painting a picture of monstrous angels falling from the sky and tearing creatures apart, only for them to regenerate as something new. As with all great songwriting, there are layers of meaning hidden behind McCabe's words; the song speaks to affirming humanity and inherent value. Musically, it draws you in and compels you to sing along to its chaotic chorus of "But I promise, promise, promise, we are not monsters, monsters, monsters."
After the pair of "Worm" tracks, we have the pairing of the banging singles "Eutherians (Ultramarine)" and "Giant Giant Giant." The bombastic "Eutherians (Ultramarine)" features lyrics that seem destined to be inked deep into skin, with the second line of its chorus being a particularly choice line: "Could you love me to death for the best part of a century?" Upon the track's release, the band joked about it being named after the Warhammer Space Marine chapter Ultramarines. As a fellow kid who grew up with Games Workshop, I can see the influence of grim dark fantasy worlds in ME REX's writing on this album, as well as in the mythical symbols they choose throughout. Only someone who grew up with those kinds of fantasy worlds could have created the fantastical mythicism of "Giant Giant Giant." If I had to pick one track to showcase everything musically that the band does best, it would be that. It is a complex and nuanced song, with clever lyrics and lush instrumentation that merges the band's DIY past with their bright and creative future.
The album works so well as a collective piece that it would be easy to do a track-by-track breakdown and circle back, adding more with each listen. But for the sake of this review's word count—and much to the relief of my editor—I'll stop myself after I talk about one more track in a row: "Halley." The track is the most hauntingly melancholic song on the record. A combination of McCabe's vocals, sung with such passion that it feels like he's on the brink of breaking down, Cross's prominent drumming, Mandell's deep atmospheric bass, and electronic elements that feel like your very soul speaking, it almost brings me to tears every time I hear it. For me, it's probably the most impactful track on the record.
On a hauntingly beautiful album like Giant Elk, where each track is placed with such purpose, it's an almost impossible task to pick a favourite. But if I had to choose only one track to listen to again, it would be "Pythons". Every time I hear "Pythons", I pick up new elements that make me fall in love with the track over and over again. It's one of my favourites of the year. The lyrical themes of the seasons and the changing world around us resonate with me, as I often feel like I haven't changed while everything around me is moving on. Musically, the track has everything: driving acoustics, the most cheery-sounding synth, and a bassline that starts understated but finishes so big it reminds me why I fell in love with the bass in the first place
The record closes with its longest track, the over-five-minute epic "Summer Brevis." Again, the bassist in me is drawn to Mandell's playing. It starts out driving the initial phase of the song along, punching along with Cross's kick drum before he starts to groove out as the song progresses. Lyrically, we are painted such a vivid picture that we can almost even smell the things McCabe sings about as he describes a world falling apart and how everything ends in dust but we hold on to an ember of something. One of my favourite moments of the song is the vocal harmonies that start around the 3:55 mark as the song starts to build for one last time before the crescendo that ends it. And as the track dies suddenly, we are surrounded again by those swirling electronics that started the whole thing off. It's an album that beckons to be played again and again
Giant Elk is a captivating and immersive album that demands to be listened to on repeat on those long autumn nights spent by the fire. A triumph of artistry and ambition, it is a masterfully crafted work that is sure to cement ME REX's reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting bands in the UK. The album is a perfect fit for Big Scary Monster's impressive and diverse roster, further solidifying their place as a home to some of the most captivating and groundbreaking music being made today.
In Giant Elk, ME REX have created a remarkable piece of art, one that stands as one of the strongest full-length debuts I have ever heard. The album's lyrical themes of friendship, forgiveness, loss, and joy are interwoven with sweeping metaphors of alchemy and mythology, creating a rich and evocative tapestry that is both haunting and beautiful. The band's musicality is equally impressive, with intricate arrangements that blend elements of mid-west emo, indie, post-rock, and folk to create a sound that is both familiar and otherworldly.
Giant Elk from ME REX is out now via Big Scary Monsters. Catch ME REX on tour this November.
