- Record Label: Warner Bros.
- Release Date: Oct 7, 2008
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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The first disc, Elephants, pitches its tent closer to the Happenstance camp with lushly textured ballads, while Teeth Sinking Into Heart plays up the singer's debt to rock artists like PJ Harvey. The latter CD is the biggest surprise here, as it displays a swaggering confidence that wasn't as evident on Yamagata's previous releases.
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On the first part (Elephants), she sticks to brooding breakup ballads with long, languid piano chords and lush string arrangements, the perfect soundtrack for the lovesick....The mood changes radically on the second part, when Yamagata emerges with gritty, garage-rock tunes a la PJ Harvey, delivering defiant hooks with the energy of someone taking revenge.
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MojoElephant's songs of love and death are heart-wrenchingly sad, movingly performed and sung in a poignant, luminous voice betwixt pop and country folk-country. [Apr 2009, p.110]
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Elephants is a hushed mood piece that's all wet vowels and damaged love; Teeth is filled with rock & roll bite and gloves-off verses.
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The result is a slog that'll have you reaching for the happy pills. That said, Yamagata's delivery is gorgeous.
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Though each disc has its own powerful moments, the weaknesses are all eventually magnified by this unnecessary segregation of styles.
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She's more convincing as a moper, but the album's alternately punchy and slinky conclusion is heartening proof that's she's no quitter. [Nov 2008, p.102]
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UncutIf you had Yamagata bagged as "winsome singer-songwriter," the breadth and ambition of this double-disc will knock you sideways. [Apr 2009, p.105]