Elliot “Resolute” Album Review

Prime Cuts:  Beyond the Break, I Don't Walk Alone, Starlit Sky

The best songs often come from a tortured soul.  Brothers Corey Parnell and Casey Parnell had been singing together since they were teenagers.  However, due to a turbulent swirl of unfortunate events, the brothers found their van stuck in the sand in a remote beach in Mexico.  As they were in the mire of disappointments, ready to call it quits, God used the words of a little boy named Elliot to encourage them.  As a result, Elliot the band was born.  Like Ezekiel's dry bones that emerge of a valley of death, there's a resurrected verve in their enunciation and a burning fire in their execution of these 10 songs.  Moreover, their trials and tribulations, have given this new signee of DREAM Records (Satellites & Sirens, Cindy Cruse Ratcliff & Kingdom) shafts of depth and insights into their songs that eschew the obvious and the clichés.

Joining the Parnell brothers are keyboardist Evan Earwicker, drummer Michael Summers and Grammy Award-winning bassist Lonnie Chapin. Citing Switchfoot, One Republic, Hillsong UNITED, Needtobreathe as their influences, the sound of Elliot is very much in the currency of today's Christian pop/rock sounds.  Dabbling in pop synth and electronically tinged beats, they burst forth with all cylinders on "Beyond the Break."  With a litany of contagious "woohs" and "aaahs," the team sings about a longing for God with an earnestness in the vocals that is worshipfully contagious.  "I Don't Walk Alone," the band's current single, sounds like a tune Needtobreathe would covet.  Filled with lots of spacey notes and an undergirding rock beat, this ballad is a must hear for those who ever doubt God's presence.

"All Things New" incorporates some 80s Police sounds with some fresh crisp electric drums, here the doctrine of regeneration becomes palatable again with crystalline perspicuity.  With a revved up intensifying guitar zing, "In the Safety" will definitely find affinity with fans of their label mates Satellites and Sirens and Kingdom. "Starlit Sky" is easily the album's lodestar. Essentially putting Romans 1 to music, "Starlit Sky" meshes some classical string-laden soar with thumbing electric crashes to a satisfying effect.  While many of the songs here thrive on the brilliant use of metaphors and picturesque images, album closer "Have All of Me" is a straight ahead prayer of dependence on God.  With no flash at all, "Have All of Me" finds Parnell at his most tender best.

Of the copious worship bands that have taken refuge within the electronic rock sound, Elliot stands out by virtue of their insightful songs.  And maybe because of their own ordeals in their own struggles, they come across as honest, passionate and real. 

 

 

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