Stream: Cori Elliott, ‘Between Two Places’

Kevin Bronson on August 22nd, 2020

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As a teenager, Austin-reared Cori Elliott was conscripted to be the lead vocalist and bassist for the prog-power trio the Vim Dicta, who despite some plum industry connections never got the love their sophisticated music deserved.

Having set off on her own in 2018, Elliott on Friday released the seven-track mini-album “Between Two Places,” a moody, mostly downtempo collection of personal reflection and musical refraction that moves between gauzy balladry, beat-driven pop and electronic rock, sometimes all in one slow-building composition. Working with producer Josh Grondin, whose touch is meticulous and restrained, Elliott slides vocally between her recent past as bold rock frontwoman and distant past as a folk singer.

“I wrote each song on guitar first, almost as a blueprint for what would become of them,” Elliott says. “I wrote some songs at the tail end of being in my band, and then I even wrote a few during the start of the recording sessions. I think when we started recording, I got inspired and a few songs came out that we ended up recording. One was ‘Too Far Gone.’”

It’s one of the soundtrack-worthy tracks on the album, along with “Eyes” and “Lucky” — each of which patiently ascends to bombastic heights — and “Lie to Me,” which slow-burns on deep beats until a tempo change adds some urgency to the titular directive.

Of the album title, Elliott says, “During the time I was working out the logistics of setting up the release of the singles/EP, I was in the middle of reading Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Glass Menagerie.’ I hadn’t come up with a title yet for the album and was sifting through ideas when I came across one of the main character’s lines, which was ‘Time is the greatest distance between two places,’ and it struck me immediately. I couldn’t help but think what a powerful statement that was, so relatable and especially in relation to my songs. I felt like I had written and recorded them at such a transitional period in my life that using a bit of that line and paying homage to it made a lot of sense to me.”

||| Watch: The video for “Too Far Gone”