Elke – Failed Attempt

As Elke gears up for the release of her third studio album Big Mike on October 30 via Congrats Records, today she shares another offering off the highly anticipated record.

“Failed Attempt,” in Elke’s words, is about “loving someone so deeply and unconditionally who hasn’t learned to love themself yet. There are different voice memos in this song and sneaky references that make it feel like a scrapbook. The [self-directed] music video compiles footage from one of my hometowns. Welcome to my memory lane.”

Elke has released two singles off of the new album to date, lead single “Pusher,” and The Virgin Suicides inspired “Breathless”. Both tracks arrived with self-directed videos by Kayla Grainger aka Elke.

Sonically, Big Mike is a departure from the maximalist textures of her 2024 release Divine Urge. The album title is a callback to the larger-than-life figures of her youth in the nineties, legends like Michael Jordan, and most importantly, her father, who she recently lost.

Big Mike takes us back to the beginning, to the growing pains of youth you never outgrew. Across nine tracks, Graninger confesses, pleads, jokes, vows. There’s something elemental about the world of Big Mike. Graninger’s lyrics are close to the bone, simple and exact. Her voice is clear, unadorned and stripped down.

The album cover is untouched. “I sound like myself,” she says. Having lived through different versions of herself, she’s pared it all back, with just her and a guitar on stage. These songs were written in rooms she’s painted and fixed up, performed at open-mics for strangers. The result is coherent and natural, the way your shoulders relax around a friend that knows themselves, and how just being around them makes you feel seen and understood, too.

Big Mike takes a big swing, knowing the cost of being performative is higher than the risk of exposing yourself. And when we’re ready, Big Mike will be waiting on the other side to greet us, flowers in hand.

#elke.world