Get this for a publicist’s wet dream: a young and talented composer, after graduating the prestigious Yale University, retreats to the Canadian Rockies to escape the noise of urban life. There, in solitude, he composes in its entirety a sprawling chamber-pop concept album, naming it after the Spanish town that hosts the running of the bulls; only, the composer isn’t a singer, so he recruits three friends to sing the different ‘characters’ on the album. To top things off, said composer has the word Ludwig in his name. It’s a hell of a story. But it’s true. The composer in question is 24-year-old Brooklynite Ellis Ludwig-Leone. And the resultant band and album is San Fermin.
San Fermin is an audacious, no-holds-bared effort, the kind of album that leaves you drained come the end. Over the course of 17 songs, Ludwig-Leone and his cast of singers (Allen Tate, Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe) embark on an operatic journey that touches just about every colour on the emotional spectrum. There’s the sombre slow-build of opener Renaissance!,.the heady feel-good pop of lead single Sonsick (elevated by the tandem vocals of Laessig and Wolfe), the lunatic wailing of jazzy saxophones on the freakish The Count. Scattered amongst it all are a series of eerie instrumental segues (Lament for V.G, At Sea, In The Morning).
All up, the high theatrics and schizophrenic temperament of San Fermin brings to mind Sufjan Stevens’ similarly epic Illinois set. Only, Stevens’ classic album is far more affecting. There’s just something about San Fermin that doesn’t transcend the sum of its many parts. Sure, it’s excellent in patches, but for all its hullaballoo it never quite lands the emotional blow it wants to deliver. Perhaps Ludwig-Leone got a little too clever with the endless weaving of voices. Or perhaps, more specifically, it’s the voice of Allen Tate. His deadpan baritone is so reminiscent of The National’s Matt Berninger that it becomes a distraction. And look, as much as I loved Berninger’s earnest croon at first, its relentless monotone is starting to become really, really tedious. That said, San Fermin still offers plenty to keep the adventurous mind occupied.
BY WAYNE MARSHALL
Best Track: Sonsick
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Illinois SUFJAN STEVENS, Boxer THE NATIONAL,
The Hazards of Love THE DECEMBERISTS
In A Word: Operatic
