Yeah. You never thought you'd see
them again. Well,
guess what?
Elastica is back with The Menace, a mixed up
scrapbook of
Donna Matthews' not-so-
amicable departure,
creative growth for both songwriters, and a rather chipper
break-up note. So, what's happening? Well, Donna Matthews
contributes two of the best, and the two worst songs on the album. ("Image Change", "Nothing Stays The Same" and "Human", and "A Love Like Ours")
Justine's changed a lot too. Instead of copping
Stranglers' riffs and doing her best
Poly Styrene impression, she's grown cold,
cerebral, and dissonant, sending a love letter to
the Fall on "Mad Dog" and writing two somber
ambient mood pieces, "My Sex" and "Miami Nice," which are the most
ambitious and
personal things she's ever written. Still, it seems
logical, if you listen to "
Indian Song" from their first. Still, this is
Elastica we're talking about. So, yeah, "Nothing Stays" steals the chorus from "
Kidney Bingos" and "Human" essentially
samples "
Lowdown." But hey, when
art-punk is this infectious, how can you go wrong?