There’s something romantic and cinematic about adopted New Jersey (via Norway) songwriter Luke Elliot’s third album, Let ‘em All Talk (Icons Creating Evil Art) over and above the wistful storytelling. ‘I (Who Have Nothing)’, all film-noir meets spaghetti western vibes with its orchestral flecks, feels torn from an as-yet-unwritten Tarrantino follow-up to Django Unchained, or perhaps the lead single to the debuting next James Bond, while ‘William Tell’ could have been one of the musical interludes from Black Mariah’s club in Luke Cage (Netflix version).
When you release a fourteen-song follow-up to an album you released barely six months previously you’re either 1) beyond prolific, or 2) blessed with too much time on your hands. When the music involved possesses the quirkiness and diversity of German quintet Black Space Riders, it becomes an even more staggering achievement.