The Elevator Division

Good EPs leave you wanting more. Bad EPs leave you glad there wasn’t more. Whatever Makes You Happy falls somewhere in between. That’s not a slight, either. Even in its brevity, the album seems complete. Elevator Division does more with five songs than many bands do with twenty. Whatever was released when God was a boy (more than a year ago), but the excitement surrounding the band has more to do with anticipation for the future than with appreciation for the past. On November 25, the band announced that it had signed with Second Nature and was knee-deep in preparations for its third full-length, to be released next year. Whatever is the link between where Elevator Division has been and where it is headed. Which is up. Third floor, ladies lingerie. Fourth floor, national indie cred. Influenced by the usual suspects, the band trickles into a valley somewhere between Radiohead and the Cure; the result is melodic, if somber, indie pop that meanders without getting lost. Tracks such as “Tempo of Three” and “Blood Brothers” boast arrangements that ache while they rock and vocals that soothe while they torture. The combination only whets the appetite.