#FeatureFriday Saint Elizabeth by ella guro

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Saint Elizabeth by @ellaguro.bsky.social

FeatureFriday: ella guro – Saint Elixabeth

I reviewed ella guro’s Saint Elizabeth for Other People’s Music this past March. It jumped out at me then for its weird, fuzzy and scuzzy take on art pop, and I’ve found myself returning to it ever since. Deeper turns thru the album have only supported my initial take – this is a distinctly weird and personal art pop outing, leaning perhaps a bit more toward art than pop.

I mentioned St. Vincent and Bjork as influences before – let me add Laurie Anderson and Kate Bush as other things I hear in there, along with some post-punk ghosts – the track “whyte dress” sounds like Siouxsie Sioux fronting a lofi version of Nine Inch Nails, and I am here for that. It’s a wild album that encompasses pop hooks and spacey, haunted soundscapes alike, and there aren’t many of those to be found. I closed my last review by declaring this to be “Smart, complex, weird, and cool,” and all I can say is I still think so.

Ether Diver

When the first track of this album, ‘Cult of Me’ kicked this album off I expected we were getting an Ambient/Experimental experience here judging by the atmospheric dreamy sounding layered loops I was hearing.

That was until the vocals kicked in, fragile and beautiful possessing this lovely trembling vibrato. So instrumental was off the table then but the overall feel still possesses a lot of that Ambient feel overall due to its meticulously layered production and vibey atmosphere it has going on. There’s something solemn about the delivery here, feeling like they are songs of praise meant to be heard in a church environment.

A vibe which contrasts weirdly with the rather brutally honest lyrics on display here. As does the sporadic use of some more unsettling sounds sprinkled here and there that really seem to tell a story. So as I alluded to before this gives it all a rather Ambient-like vibe but I feel there’s also faint hints of a more Synthpop feel, almost bringing to mind a Vaporwaved/glitched out version of Tears for Fears at moments. And it’s this aspect that kinda grounds the whole album making tracks feel like songs instead of just merely being exercises in atmosphere.

It’s a perfect blending of both I’d say making for a cohesive yet adventurous and hauntingly beautiful record.

Eveyweveydevey

This is one of the rare albums that I appreciated, but that I still could not fully find access to and I’m not quite sure why that is. But one thing after another.
ella guro seemed to use a melody as the foundation for her tracks and then deconstructed it in a rather glitchy way, then added new elements and vocals to it in order to expand or even change the mood of the foundational melody. An approach like this is honestly not something I particularly enjoy, even if it is absolutely clear to me that every single choice was made with great care. There is an undeniable creativity in this; an imagination that allowed the artist to create something beyond the obvious.

To me this album feels feverish, like it is clinging to a recognizable thread while everything around it is swirling and rearranging itself in an almost psychedelic fashion. A bit as if you are intoxicated, but try to concentrate really hard on a conversation.
What can I say overall about this? Did I like it? Sure, it’s very well crafted and the imagination is astounding. Did I get it? Not really, and in this case, it bothers me a little. Would I recommend this album? Absolutely; as long as the listener is keeping an open mind and is able to handle a good amount of weirdness, there is a lot to enjoy here.

Florgoth

This is a wildly inventive piece of musical art, it’s an immersive experience, music, deconstructed and rebuilt, musical demolition and architecture rolled into one. Samples, glitches, an orchestral like take on smashed,twisted, broken sounds.

It all feels deliberate, studied, redefined and meticulously constructed, all the while keeping the melodic and rhythmic in mind. At one one I was so drawn in that the battery warning on my earphones came on and I thought it was part on the sonic fabric. I”m still not sure if it isn’t.

The way Ella Gro plays with samples, effects and sounds means that if you are not prepared it can be quite the surprise but if you are ready or willing to go back you will be rewarded with a really intriguing emotional concept of music that is never boring.

Untidy Music

Listening to this album was an unexpected experience. I found it challenging, even a little off-putting at the very start, but at some point along the way, something clicked for me and by the end I wanted to start it all over again.

The lyrics are striking in their acuity. They’re poems in their own right, and reading them while listening added to my appreciation of what the album is doing.

The sound here is experimental and textured, incorporating found audio and weaving together what can seem like discordant tones. But the discord seems like the point. There’s even a track titled, simply enough, “go fuck yourself”. It’s the irreverence that unifies the whole thing, the rejection of anything easy, shallow or expected.

“blank cassette”, my favorite track on the album, includes the lyric “in a world /where McDonald’s and Drake / are both the same thing” and I think that the whole album gleefully succeeds at being neither. I’ve listened to the whole thing three times this week, and I like it more each time.

E.A

Updated: July 17, 2026 — 5:18 am

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