Ellery

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Ellery, the newly Louisville-based duo Tasha Golden and Justin Golden, returns with Over Land, Over Sea. The album harks to the indie lush-pop Ellery is known for, but “Over Land, Over Sea” is a definitively new effort—richly layered and provocative. “Sleep Well Goodnight” is deceptively sweet, hinting at revenge, and “Tennessee Whiskey (Hallelujah)” sets violent family histories against an eerily non-redemptive “Hallelujah.” “We’ve been connecting with a new hometown,” songwriter/vocalist Tasha Golden says, “and with who we are now as people and artists. There’s been a lot of identification and disidentification, and these songs get at that. It’s reconciliation and rejection, a kind of reckoning.”

Indeed, a lot has changed for Ellery since 2010, when the band released its previous record, produced by Grammy-winner Malcolm Burn. That year, Tasha had a bout of severe depression that led the band off the road and into new work as artists. In 2012, she began running trauma-informed writing workshops for incarcerated girls—exploring how poetry and songs can break silences and amplify girls’ voices. The bravery of those young writers inspired Tasha to publish her own book of revealing poems, Once You Had Hands (Humanist Press), in 2015. The book is a result of “pushing beyond what I thought I was ‘allowed’ to write about”—a practice that altered Tasha’s songwriting, too. “ The songs ’Tennessee Whiskey’ and ‘Sleep Well’ definitely wouldn’t exist without Once You Had Hands,” she notes.

Tasha is now a doctoral student in public health at the University of Louisville, which isn’t the departure it may seem: “For years we’d performed songs about domestic violence or mental illness,” she notes. “And all over the world, people came up afterwards wanting to talk about those things. The songs made stigmatized issues talkaboutable. I’ve always wondered, what are the health implications of that? Of creating openings for difficult conversations? That’s what I research.”

Recording “Over Land, Over Sea” meant exploring what “Ellery” is now—which wasn’t always easy. But Justin took the helm: arranging, producing, and mixing. He traveled to musicians, recorded between his other projects, and snagged studio hours when Tasha could get away from her studies. But their non-Ellery pursuits are important writing influences, so the fact that “Over Land, Over Sea” took shape in and around those influences seemed fitting. It also generated artistic freedom: “We’d always operated from a lot of ‘shoulds’ as Ellery,” Tasha notes. “But recording this in the midst of everything else helped shake that out of us. This time it was more just, What does this need to say? What do we want this to be?”

The answer is an offering of long-awaited new music. The album features “loud louds and quiet quiets,” radio-friendly melodic hooks, haunting lines, and dreamy, unexpected turns.

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"Let's write a holiday record," he said, and suddenly, like curious memories, there were tunes- humming along like they'd been there for years. Words mysteriously strung themselves together: "velvet train," "rose and shine," "tractor wheel and riverside." We woke to jots of musical phrases. We fell asleep asking for the next line. The upright piano sang gentle, lilting songs. We sang along. We smiled.

Not that it all came in a rush. Some of it we dragged out of us with sweat and a rather magnificent Impatience. Nevertheless, the whole thing seemed to perch, whistle, and tease. If we were impatient, it was because the songs flirted so relentlessly. So-
All the more satisfying now to hear them played back: To listen in on a chorus of friends. To hear the pluck of nylon strings.

Pluck. Pluck. Hum. No small amount of jangle.

Autumn leaned happy, heavy into November. It swelled toward Thanksgiving, it turned the knob on the close of a year.
It winked at us, once, twice, and we played it some music.
It's a small smattering of Ellery's take on holiday songs. We hope you smile. We hope you sing along.
There's a harmony part with your name on it.

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"Ellery’s latest offering, 'You Did Everything Right' (November 2008), is something of a provisional work, a demo-cum-EP that was not originally conceived as a stand-alone product. In that sense it is less a coherent project than a collection of songs.

"The new songs conjure an eclectic and skillful admixture of melodic pop-folk piano. There’s a little Sarah McLachlan here and Over the Rhine too; the sound is familiar but it’s undeniable there is some freshness to these songs. This is probably Ellery’s most mature work to date, which might go without saying but not all of us are graced by Time in the same dignified way. There is a grown-up sensuality here, more caress than climax, more subtlety than outright seduction. These songs come to us unfolding slowly, languid and bittersweet, like old friends. We’ve moved beyond the fresh earnestness of 'Song for Lovers' or the precocious wide-eyed wonder of 'Long Coat On,' which is not to diminish where those earlier offerings found us — or left us.

"But there is something almost approaching angst here, something more self-aware and less innocent. What we haven’t left, and never want to leave, is Ellery’s uncanny ability to conjure a whole life in a four-minute pop song, or weave a melody out of what would for others would be just an ostinato. Ellery’s songs have never been pretentious but these are more relaxed and surefooted. They have nothing to prove, and much to offer. They are generous, like lovers.

"Of course, there are things that give me pause: the curiously lo-fi toms and guitar sounds on 'After,' or the constant dangerous negotiation between distinctiveness and diction in Tasha’s vocals. Any use of chimes skirts the edge of cliche, and it’s hard not to fall on the other side.

"But there are other moments that make any liabilities utterly forgiveable. These are small touches — the delightfully jangly tambourine on 'What I Need.' And the Rhodes. Dear Lord, the Rhodes — is that real? (Don’t tell me.) The consistently artful and understated drumming. The use of ambience, of space, of delicate textures and evocative soundscapes. 'After''s plaintive harmonies (and it’s good to hear Justin’s voice). Proof that the electric guitar can sound good clean (or mostly so).

"Or this:

Darling, don’t be frightened
There are skies under your skin
In a wide array of white and gray
On wild winter winds.

"There’s a moment in the title track where the bottom drops out and Tasha is left suspended over almost nothing, vulnerable and naked, which she faces without flinching. And as the song unfolds from that moment, do we actually hear Tasha let her voice crack?

"God, that’s fetching."

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Ellery unleashed its Virt Records debut, "Lying Awake," in 2006. The album, produced by Grammy nominee Ric Hordinski (Over the Rhine, David Wilcox), showcased a band which, after five years of making music together, had finally found its musical center.

The band's debut was warmly received by the Cincinnati community, including a cover story in CiN Weekly, regular airplay on WNKU, and three nominations in the Cincinnati Entertainment awards. "Lying Awake" earned Ellery strong national recognition as well, including glowing reviews in national publications such as Paste Magazine and Performing Songwriter. "Long Coat On" was featured on Starbucks HearMusic, and the first single, "Anna," was featured on Paste Sampler #21 and played on AAA radio stations throughout the country and in the UK.

"Tasha and Justin Golden combine skillful, melodic instrumentation, intelligent but unassuming lyrics, and captivating vocals to make engaging indie pop on Lying Awake... [It's] music for the well-adjusted, music filled with alt-radio-ready piano, tasteful guitar and breathy vocals that flirt with melancholy but always climax with hopefulness." -Paste Magazine

"...The 11 emotionally charged, introspective, mid-tempo tunes smartly put singer Tasha Golden's smooth, pliable voice front and center to guide the soaring melodies, as her muted piano playing and the shimmering guitars and husky backing vocals from husband Justin Golden provide an earthy ballast..." -Performing Songwriter Magazine

"...The twosome's airy yet organic Pop has a soul-tickling emotional weight that many bands would die for. Starry-eyed yet also very grounded, Ellery's sound is romantic, dreamy, moving and flawlessly executed." -Cincinnati Citybeat Magazine