ELLE BELLE RELEASES HIS PROPHETIC
POST EVERYTHING ALBUM
OUT TODAY VIA LITTLE RECORD COMPANY
“Christopher Pappas has a tough act to follow … himself.” - Buzzbands LA
“An experimental pop maverick. Thinly cloaked as his views may be, Pappas offers a fresh take on the nation's social climate while also expanding his sonic territory.” - All Music
LISTEN TO POST EVERYTHING : HERE | VISUAL LIVESTREAM
After a year of “unprecedented” events and cultural shifts that will have a lasting effect for years to come Los Angeles songwriter and composer Elle Belle has risen to the challenge to answer that question, “where do we go from here?,” with a careful examination of events, thoughts and feelings that have been swirling in his head leading into, and wading through this dumpster fire of a year.
“Through personal, political, and cultural grieving, these songs confront the hard truths of life while seeking whatever positivity can be found.” - V13
Post Everything is about reckonings. Christopher Pappas, who writes and records as Elle Belle, had reached a level of emotional fatigue of the last few years that filled his heart with a deep misanthropic nihilism. Through personal, political, and cultural grieving, these songs rake through the ashes of an era and ask - where do we go from here? Post Everything is a journey through this nihilistic wasteland, and that if we dig deep enough, we can still find droplets of hope. “The reward of putting out an album is all the more sweeter after the year we’ve had,” says Pappas. “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I hope, Post Everything, despite its untidy bouts with nihilism, is a perfect soundtrack for this journey.”
Times of crisis and uncertainty have a tendency to make us nostalgic and yearn for the comforts of the past. Pappas lures the listener in from the get go with the very first song and title track that generously tips its hat to the 90’s rock Pappas grew up on, and has garnered comparison to Dinosaur Jr./J. Mascis. There are additional nuggets of comforting nostalgia in tracks like “Red Light Blues,” reminiscent of post-punk 80’s synths wrapped in the melancholy of the Smiths, “Holy Light” and “Standing Room Only,” that borrows from the early 60’s pop psychedelia of the Animals.
“Elle Belle’s music remains characteristically elastic — it’s the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and beyond — and his outlook on the general state of things fluctuates accordingly.” - BuzzBands LA
“Elle Belle is a musical shape-shifter and phase shifter, his music ranging from synth-driven dance tunes to voracious garage rock songs and shiny pop anthems.” - Atwood Magazine
Pappas is artist’s artist, who in addition to writing all the songs, mixing a number of them, Pappas had a keen vision for how to visually translate the music. The art work for the album, and singles,, “Post Everything” and “Everyone Knows (But They Won’t Tell You),” leading into the album release were all derived from photos Pappas took of his hometown.
“I had a recurring dream as a child where I would stumble upon a place in my hometown that I had never seen before, Pappas told Culture Collide. “This felt impossible in the small rural town of Auburn, New Hampshire, but there among the familiar geography, would be a road I had somehow missed. I’d wake up before I got the chance to explore, but the possibility that my hometown had places left to discover exhilarated me. So, I travelled back to my hometown in search of these hidden places. I’d retrace my steps to the edge of reality and dream and scan the landscape, looking for the street, or secret door that would lead me to that undiscovered place. There is a mishmash of influences—musical, political, personal—that were mixed into the pot when making Post Everything, and while recording the album I started to have that dream again.” Pappas describes NH as suffering from “urban fatigue,” which feels much aligned with unpolished rawness of Post Everything. In addition to the photos Pappas has crafted a wildly creative and visually stunning live stream that can viewed HERE. started at 10am PT.
Post Everything follows up the sprawling 20 track opus Wacko Gumbo that featured Lucius and Misty Boyce (Lord Huron, Sarah Bareilles) and his most recent release No Signal, that received rave reviews for its social commentary and his brilliant mixing of genres from dark pop, to post-punk, synth rock and a hint experimental.
Mixed with a variety of genres; psych-rock, prog, electronic, Elle Belle continues Pappas’ knack for rich, intricate songwriting. He has written music for NASA, composing the soundtracks for the Juno and Rosetta mission official docu-series. He also composed an award-winning musical (“Pope! An Epic Musical”) with the Wall Street Journal praising it, proclaiming “[Pope!] is proof that the musical [genre] isn’t dead!” He is also a prolific writer, churning out 2 T.V. pilots and a new full-length horror feature that are currently in development. His dense and eclectic catalog is why many consider Pappas as one of America’s most prolific and captivating under-the-radar artists.
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