One Track Mind

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This song explodes. There’s just no other way to describe what happens during the course of “Taller Children,” the title track from Elizabeth and the Catapult’s sophomore release and their first for the Verve Forecast label. As their new home implies, the sound here is one that takes a progressive attitude toward some traditionally jazzy qualities (female vocals, bopping horn sections, experimental proclivities, etc.). It’s smart, too, as you would expect from a group whose 2006 debut EP made it onto NPR’s Best CDs of 2006 lists.

Perhaps the best thing “Taller Children” has going for it is that it strikes a perfect balance between performing gymnastic feats of sonic dexterity and being reverent toward traditional ideas of mellifluousness and song structure. It’s a peacock of a track, to be sure, but the embellishments here only serve to strengthen the song. The crazier things get, the better the music becomes, and “Taller Children” is never bogged down by the weight of its inventiveness. It is a masterful composition marvelously performed, well-worth the praise it will undoubtedly receive.

When Elizabeth Ziman sings, “In the end, we’re all just taller children,” one can’t help but feel that she’s selling herself way too short. Some of these children have evidently grown into their big-people shoes with grace and whimsy.