ELSKA (Elsa Lee) is releasing a new album (On the Shoulders of Giants) on March 26. It’s cathartic on a personal and community level – starting with a call to action for our age – Stand Together.
Elsa was one of the artists featured on the #METOOMPLS CD last summer. We got an opportunity back then to talk to her about her song, On the Shoulders of Giants. It tears at the heartstrings as she recognizes that the #METOOMPLS movement is only possible because of the generations that addressed the issue, as best they could, in their time and is necessary as we prepare to be the shoulders our daughters, siblings, grandkids stand on. That blend of social justice and personal vulnerability continues throughout the new album.
The music is a mix of pop with Elsa’s clear and honest voice that reminds me of folk and an undercurrent of electronica that modernizes the music. An engaging blend that lightens some of the heavier-themed songs – such as Shoulders of Giants and Endless Winter, which is a song about mental health and that feeling like the dark times just won’t end. Those of us in Minnesota know the literal feeling of endless winter, most of us know the feeling from the pandemic and then some know that feeling as a depression. It’s a lovely song with an important hint of hope. The counter in mood is Hummingbird, which is a song of pure upbeat optimism.
The album is the modern take on the 1960s revolution music. There’s a delightful (and sadly insightful) tree hugging song and a another tear jerker in Caroline, which we learned Elsa wrote based on seeing an older woman at a Women’s March with a sign that said – I can’t believe we’re still protesting this stuff. It got her thinking about how much change we’ve had in the last 100 years and how slow that must have felt for women (like Caroline) who have lived through the changes. Elsa paints a picture with her songs that strike a chord!
Mostly Minnesota 