<p>- Where did Elle Músa spring from? Her cosmopolitan and grown-up brand of pop-exotica is the sort of sound that takes a long time to develop: listening to a lot of other music, gaining the kind of emotional depth you get by living. If the Sunny Coast local has been gathering that kind of experience it hasn’t been a public affair - this is the first I’ve heard of her. Or maybe it’s on me, because the author / artist / fashionista and musician has achieved a surprising amount in her twenty-something years. Subtle, enigmatic, alluring, is Músa a genuine mystery, or is it just the spell cast by her music?</p>
<p>A part answer to the riddle may be in the fact that much of Músa’s work -the visual art and fashion stuff- is done under her other name, <strong>Elle-Louise Burguez</strong>, so there’s that. The Músa moniker has comparatively few followers on the socials, but has been around long enough to release a seven-track EP, <em>Apple For You</em>, back in 2018, now followed up in ‘21 by <em>sun, sun, sun</em>. From a long and stylish list of influences one that consistently appears near the top is that ol’ freak-folker <strong>Devendra Banhart</strong>, which, interestingly, circumscribes both of Músa’s otherwise quite disparate records. <em>Apple</em>, in its acoustic singer-songwriter stylings channels Banhart’s throwback psych-folk, while <em>sun </em>indulges Banhart’s passion for lush, head-spinning exotica. <em>Apple For You </em>is a good record, no doubt, but <em>sun, sun, sun </em>is the more intriguing, stylistically. Subtly folding in artistic influences and the styles of the ‘60s and ‘70s, it’s one of those happy occasions where the pop is immediately enjoyable but you can come back and tease apart the different historical layers to your heart’s content.</p>
<p>Elle Músa is both dreamy and quite philosophical in her writing and yet the lyrics are also part of the immediacy, celebrating experiences as they are felt, as simple and profound as sentiments like “<em>Mango pops on a summer’s day make me feel like I’m going to live forever.</em>” Beneath the sunny warmth the music cleverly weaves the latin feel of beachy bongos and guitar into piano-powered soul that itself carries everything over into a pounding disco beat, string highlights and the shimmering night. It's not just disco and soul, Músa is a fan of oldschool exotics like <strong>Henry Mancini </strong>and the chanson of <strong>Serge Gainsbourg </strong>and <strong>Jane Birkin</strong>. On top of that, if you listen to a track like <em>Geminis</em>, she also knows how to recreate their work synthetically, like <strong>Groove Armada</strong> and other dreamy triphoppers of the ‘90s.</p>
<p>Helping keep things focussed on the tropics the record often returns to latin styles, like bossa nova, as you’ll hear on most recent single <em>Coco Honey You And I</em>. Interestingly this one was composed while trying to stay warm in a frigid apartment in Portugal and, indeed, listening to it can’t help but carry you away to warmer climes. Is <em>sun, sun, sun </em>a record of Elle Músa’s pining for the balmy comforts of South East Queensland? Really, from the bossa opening, this trip through the history of exotica to the imaginary shores of <em>Bibi’s Bay </em>is many things and all of them are full of songwriting smarts and pop sweetness. Like the mysterious mermaids Elle Músa sings about, I had no idea she existed, but she makes for one rather special trip to the beach.</p>
<p>- Chris Cobcroft.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=955160896/size=large/bgcol=ff…; seamless><a href="https://ellemusa.bandcamp.com/album/sun-sun-sun-ep-2021">sun, sun, sun (EP | 2021) by Elle Músa</a></iframe>
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