'I Am' The Debut Album from Ellis. Reviewed

New band Ellis. based out of California released their first album ‘I Am’ earlier this year. Their band consists of Chris Hayzel on vocals and guitar, Elora Jane on vocals, ukulele, and guitar, Jon Osser on bass, Jason Weiner on drums, and Dylan Llewellyn on keys. Their music is a mixture of acoustic, poppy, post folk alternative sounds. Chris and Elora wrote all of the songs on their own in the past few years, and luckily they all mixed together well to form this album.

I Am is a very polished, smooth debut that makes it sound like they’ve been doing this for years together. I found myself loving so many of the songs, such as Capture Me which I loved Chris’ voice in, and Reality which was just a really fun song. Toppling is beautiful in its simplicity and is a close second to Lover vs Love Her for favourites.

Deepest Depths feels a bit like it’s been put on fast forward, or rewind or something. I guess that might be the point, but it always felt like it had the wrong pacing. I like the lyrics and I’m happy they have another faster paced song on the album, but there was just something a little off that I couldn’t shake.

Lover vs Love Her is easily one of my favourite songs off the album. It really showcases the great blending of Chris and Elora’s voices and provides a poppy flair. It’s the song that makes me want to dance around my room as I sing along. In fact, I might have done just that as I got ready this morning. I found Call Me Elee provided very similar feelings of happiness and the desire to sing and dance along, and can you really say no to Elora’s beautiful voice?

I really enjoyed this album and it’s couldn’t help but sing along after a few plays. It’s fun and folky as they try to add their name to the growing list of popular folk music that’s starting to really come back into the mainstream popular light.

You can check out my interview with Chris and Elora here, and buy their album I Am on iTunes, out now!