Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart [CD]

It's been four long years since Rachael Yamagata's debut album "Happenstance" made its appearance, and since then we've not heard a sung word.

So that makes the appearance of "Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart" even sweeter, especially since Yamagata has clearly not stagnated. Her second full-length album is just as bluesy and quietly bittersweet as her prior work, but four years have added polish and depth to her music -- especially the layered, string-soaked instrumentals and hauntingly world-weary lyrics.

"If the elephants have past lives, yet are destined to always remember/it's no wonder how they scream," Yamagata muses over a delicate piano melody. As a backdrop of strings pass behind her, she meditates on a past lover who is "forcing me to remember when all I want is to just forget you," and compares the painful memories and lingering feelings to various animals -- elephants, tigers, hawks.

As the song ends, she warns listeners sadly, "So for those of you falling in love/keep it kind, keep it good, keep it right/Throw yourself in the midst of danger, but keep one eye open at night...."

Things get no more cheerful in the songs that follow -- the reigning sound is that of piano/string ballads, drifting sadly through tales of lost love and haunting regrets. Yamagata does give the sound some variation -- gentle thumping ballads asking "what if I leave?", soaring laments, string-soaked jazzy tunes, trickling instrumentals that echo the first song, a folksy "Duet" with Ray Lamontaigne, country-edged melodies. It ends with a suitably plaintive lament ("Someday I hope I can find the horizon/I've been all around the world... And if I did teach you anything at all/I hope that you learned how to love...") that drips with painful sentiment...

.... except it's not actually the end. There's a second disc on here called "Teeth Sinking Into Heart," which is less into the whole piano-jazz/pop sound and more into rough-edged rock'n'roll. Yamagata smashes through the off-kilter melody of "Sidedish Friend," which sounds like the next step from her sadder songs: "I don't want you hangin' out with me/But I want you when I call/We can stay together separately/And we won't be lonely at all...."

She whirls through the celebrity clashes and breakups of "Accidents" ("There's nothing worse than bitterness/just splashed across the page") and the blurry, bass-driven "Faster." The EP finishes with a sort of balancing act in the multilayered "Pause the Tragic Ending" and "Pause," where the basic pop song expands into bittersweet, epic proportions. So different, yet so beautiful.

"Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart" is a pretty unique musical experience: the first disc takes Yamagata's signature sound and makes it deeper and richer, and the second forges fearlessly into PJ Harvey/Pixies/Tom Waits territory. It would have been a disaster if she had broken up the bittersweet expanse of "Elephants" with the rock'n'roll sound of those later songs, but as a full-length album and accompanying EP it works perfectly. Call it spreading her musical wings in two very different directions.

Most of these songs are cradled in Yamagata's gentle piano melodies and blanketed in a thick swathe of overhanging, bittersweet strings. These two instruments weave together in a rich expanse of melancholy music that can reach some truly epic climaxes, or fall into a haunting murmur ("This little life... goes so fast..."). Additionally, Yamagata sprinkles them with a little flute, thumpy drums and some folksy guitar too, only to then switch over to grinding bass, reverberating guitar and breakneck pace in the second disc.

Only the last couple songs bridge over the two styles, uniting the rock'n'roll mentality and sharp guitars with the plaintive quality and nimble guitars of her quieter songs. "Pause the Tragic Ending" and "Don't" are the most brilliant that Yamagata has made yet.

Her husky voice has lost none of its quality either -- she still sounds world-weary and wise beyond her years, and seemingly perpetually haunted by the ghosts of old love affairs... although she can turn into a raw-voiced rock chick when the song demands. Her songwriting is what has changed -- it's gotten a lot more evocative and mature, with memorable metaphors ("A whispering ghost of neighborhood flame") and vividly emotional lyrics ("If the hawks in the trees need the dead/if you're living you don't stand a chance/You can lie there and say you are fed/but there are only two ends to this dance...").

It's been four years, but Rachael Yamagata has grown as a songwriter and a musician -- and while "Elephants" shows a more mature version of her past work, the accompanying "Teeth Sinking Into Heart" reveals a whole different side.

I find out about Rachael Yamagata after hearing her on the O.C. soundtrack. Since then I have bought both of her albums and have not been disappointed.
She has a beautiful haunting voice and songs similar in style to Damien Rice.
I would particularly recommend this album if you've been/are going through a break up.

I've come to really love this album. Rachael's beautiful smokey, musical voice and her moody, intelligent songs are just tremendous. I can't even remember how I came across this artist....I'm going through a bit of phase of listening to this at the moment. Just beautiful. If you have ears, like distinctive female artists and music, chances are you will love this. I just have to buy her other album now!