The Wake

Recording an album using Italian and Latin phrases paired with references to Eastern European mythology and geography is quite an ambitious project for an American band. Pretty Girls Make Graves has done just that with Élan Vital, while still maintaining the sound that put them on the map.

Incorporating trumpets, saxophone, drum programming, piano and even whistles on Élan Vital, Pretty Girls Make Graves prove their multiple talents aren’t limited to their respective instruments. In fact, if the quintet’s instrumental repertoire were to be classified on a Terror-Alert chart, this album might very well put them at a threatening yellow.

After guitarist Nate Thelen left Pretty Girls Make Graves a few years back, it seemed as though a major player would be taken out of the band’s two-guitar volley dynamic. His absence in Élan Vital is duly forgotten by new member Leona Marrs. Demonstrating she isn’t a substitution for Thelen but rather a noteworthy addition, Marrs provides keyboards, accordion, piano, melodica and a little bit of backup vocals to complement lead singer Andrea Zollo.

Highlights of Élan Vital include the mystic “Selling The Wind,” the sorrowed keyboards concluding “Pearls On a Plate,” and guitar riff-happy “Wildcat.” The strongest song of the album, “Pictures Of a Night Scene,” ironically doesn’t sound like Pretty Girls Make Graves at all; it is sung entirely by bassist Derek Fudesco instead of Zollo.

Pretty Girls Make Graves has certainly developed an approach to songwriting to create one of the biggest surprises of 2006. And when they come to the Twin Cities in May, don’t forget to pick up a copy of Élan Vital. After all, they do have the best band name in music, if not the most true.

Pretty Girls Make Graves will be at the Triple Rock Social Club on May 3.