El May
Album: The Other Person Is You
Label: Lojinx
Tracks: 10
Website: http://elmayforever.com

Two quick bits of housekeeping before getting into the review proper. Firstly, apologies that this review has come out after El May's UK tour, unfortunately the stack didn't move as quickly as the dates. Secondly an appeal to all the designers out there, please, please, please remember to put the name of the release and the artist on the cover. Words on the sleeve are not getting in the way of your artwork/pictures they are an essential part of quickly being able to identify the release, something particularly useful when the release is on a shelf with lots of other product and people are looking to make a purchase.

Admin(rant) over, review time. Like an increasing number of acts I'm reviewing of late, El May, is the recording name for a solo artist, in this case singer-songwriter, Lara Meyerratken and this would appear to be her second full length album, following on the heels of a self titled debut, "El May" back in 2010 which seems to have become something of a collector's item and which followed an EP, "Sound The Key Notes", but that's make an assumption that it's the same El May as despite going under the triumphant title, elmayforever.com her site is very sparse in detail.

Sparse is not a description that you could apply to "The Other Person Is You", quite the opposite in fact, this is an album built on opulent layers of instrumentation to create a rich and deep dream pop musicscape for El May to build features upon with a clear voice, that's capable of lifting the narrative and melody off and against the backing.

There is an element of music as art within the album, not in that music for the sake of it way, but almost in a Three Graces type way, where the form is almost as beautiful as the subject, there are songs here that could easily be cast in another form, bronze, clay etc. and the essential essence of the piece remain untouched. Arguably, it's that, more than anything, that makes "The Other Person Is You" so easy to enjoy and also explain why "El May" has become a collector's item, as there is so much to discover.

Neil King