Advertise with The Big Takeover
The Big Takeover Issue #93
Recordings
MORE Recordings >>
Subscribe to The Big Takeover

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs


Follow us on Instagram

Follow The Big Takeover

Elessar Thiessen - A Rainy Week in Paradise (Self-Released)

22 August 2015

A singer/songwriter from Winnipeg, Elessar Thiessen has a voice endlessly imitated and yet rarely achieved with the same sort of bluesy, soulful conviction he possesses. After an EP and a live recording, he is back with his new full-length, A Rainy Week in Paradise, and hardly could a more apt title be found. A showery storm in an otherwise sunny garden, the album is a pure melancholy delight. Whether he’s by his lonesome as on the opening “Another Love Song” or has been given a helping hand by a full band on songs like “When the World Ends,” the entire record remains incredibly intimate and heartfelt.

The title track, “A Rainy Week in Paradise,” is clearly one of the highlights here; a jaunty, jangly dose of pure saccharine. It’s almost too sweet for its own good, but his commitment to the song makes it nothing short of addicting and it’s a formula repeated with the same amount of success on “Truth” and “I Need A Woman.” Yet, when everything is stripped to the bare essentials as on “Sister,” is Thiessen’s soul truly laid bare and his finest strengths shown. The entire album, A Rainy Week in Paradise, seems to be just hit after hit. Lovely stuff.