Luke Ellingson

“I want to make you cry,” he says. As if the past year alone weren’t reason enough to shed a tear or two, New Haven indie outfit Luke Ellingson (Noah Silvestry) delves into worlds real and imagined, emerging with an embrace of cathartic, unbridled emotion. On his sophomore LP, Clementine, life’s quieter moments—a bluejay seen through a kitchen window, the glow of a cell phone screen, the patter of midnight rain—find themselves swept up in tempestuous psychological tumult. Wondering where it all went wrong, Ellingson is haunted by hard truths and the ghosts of good times' past. Lead single “Keep a Light” relays Ellingson’s pursuit of renewed wholeness in the midst of a dizzying year. Now he’s just trying to figure out how to be his own best friend.

2020’s Like Wires Humming found Ellingson roaming with a bold curiosity. WXPN’s The Key likened the debut to being “The National-esque,” and harkening back to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco”. On Clementine, his wanderlust adopts new forms from within the confines of his New Haven apartment; a more expansive internal universe is revealed. Soaring shoegaze moments on the album’s lead singles coat the record with a dark, matte wash. Elsewhere, Ellingson’s writing has a more delicate power, teetering anxiously between wry and earnest. There’s an undeniable precision to dynamic; as both songwriter and producer, Ellingson knows exactly how to speak his own language. When to hold back, when to dig in, when to let go.