Album Review: Ellie Kemper by Spring 2005

Recursion: anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again.

C h point’s album John Krasinski (released under the moniker Summer 2000) is considered an important album in the genre of 5th wave emo, although exactly what characterizes 5th wave emo (beyond being DIY, recent, and some level of unhinged) is still a bit up in the air. Nonetheless, Ellie Kemper (released under the name Spring 2005), acts as an “intentional sequel” to c h point’s previous work. The main difference between the two albums is the onslaught of guest appearances on Ellie Kemper from other figures in the DIY scene, featuring artists from Elder Jack, exciting!!excellent!!, Lobsterfight and Asian Glow on various tracks. As a result, the new album is everything that made John Krasinski a moving, experimental masterpiece, with even more originality. 

The opener, “Malon,” sets the tone for the album by opening up an atmospheric soundscape with dreamy, distorted instrumentals and lyrics, gradually building to a screamo-esque climax around the middle of the song before making its way down again, ending almost as peacefully as the beginning but with the sense of melancholy that comes from exhausting yourself. Quite the opener, to say the least. 

“Trace A Path You Cannot Follow" begins with a haunting riff that’s accentuated by a melody line from a flute (!!!) before moving into a section that pummels you with layers of instrumentation, with vocals to match. The outro reminds me of the Undertale soundtrack, which in my book is a high compliment. 

“Recursion” sounds like a long-lost Slowdive B-side, and an underrated one at that. The track loses you in its waves of overlapping dissonant riffs and dreamy vocals before closing with a warm melody line from a cello.

A melancholic instrumental interlude, the opening riff of “Blood Moon Waning” is reminiscent of Ocarina of Time’s title theme before developing into a sweeping piano movement, accentuated by all manner of string instruments and eerie vocals.

Bringing you into the second movement of the album with a start, “Pando”’s electronic percussion and jarring vocals are enough to wake you back up on their own, but the saxophone towards the end is the musical equivalent of a cup of black coffee.

A return to the tone of the rest of the album, “Consecrate Your Mind In The Flame” reminds you that this is a guitar-based album, despite the abundance of other instruments featured in the other tracks. Led by a minor-keyed guitar riff, the dreamy vocals fade around the middle of the song into a breakdown, with shrieking vocals and sudden stops and starts that convey the chaos of the mind.

Bridging from the previous track seamlessly, “Something Whirl” is a whirlwind in its own right. Constantly fluctuating between chaos and calm by means of layers of instrumentation and dynamics (in both the instrumental and the vocals), the track oozes catharsis and leaves you feeling like the main character before closing with an almost-nonsensical saxophone riff. 

A needed break from the double-whammy of the previous two tracks, “Parallel Apparition” opens with quiet guitar and builds on itself throughout the track, leaving you feeling like a wave washed over you, or like you finished a Ghibli film. 

Another instrumental interlude, “Romani” captures your attention with a spooky intro before morphing into a haunting orchestral movement, all before you can look twice. 

“The Prison At The Bottom Of The Crater” is far more optimistic than anything off the rest of the album, which makes it that much more cathartic of a closer. It opens with opposing guitar melodies that are accentuated by an upbeat drum line, then by a powerful power-chord guitar melody before transforming into something reminiscent of a video game hero’s theme, then something off the Fleet Foxes discography, and then back again and then back again with increasing emotion each time before closing with a set of haunting chords that call back to the opener, “Malon.” A final track if there ever was one. 

Woven together with a strong sense of instrumentation, timing, melody, and atmosphere, Spring 2005’s Ellie Kemper is well worth the hype.