Send "Say Hi " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Like Prince changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol, Eric Elbogen's switch from the juvenile mouthful Say Hi to Your Mom to simply Say Hi marked a significant transition. While the Purple One's new moniker was willfully inscrutable, the motivation for Elbogen's truncation to Say Hi was obvious: At a certain age, it starts to look a little immature to identify yourself with a "your mom" joke (especially while singing power-pop songs about spaceships, vampires, snowcones, and puppies). And so, since 2008's The Wishes and the Glitch, his first as Say Hi, Elbogen has been settling comfortably into indie pop middle age, slowing down his tempos and digging for deeper veins of sad-sackery.Not that Elbogen has matured beyond pop music's bread-and-butter concerns: girls, the absence thereof, and what to do about them. Indeed, um, uh oh's best songs stick to the old romantic tropes. "Dots on Maps" finds Elbogen typically glum, reminiscing about the past while trying to reassure his girl about their future; it's a gentle but persistently catchy song, built on a simple guitar strum and decorated with a wavering flute and some well-placed glockenspiel. "All the Pretty Ones" is a slightly bitter ode, Elbogen grumbling over acoustic guitar and reverbed electric. "Take Ya' Dancin'" is about as upbeat as Say Hi get these days, its shuffling rhythm and hopeful melody enough to make the lyrics sound slightly more attractive than pathetic. Um, uh oh doesn't stray too far from the path set on Wishes and 2009's Oohs & Aahs, but there is a notable new development: Elbogen's got the blues, and on "Devils", "My, How It Comes", and "Shiny Diamonds", not just in sentiment but in style. On "Diamonds" he gives the kind of pinched electric guitar solo that one imagines being played with eyes shut, lip curled, face scrunched into a grimace. Not that you'd mistake the indie rocker for a blind bluesman: When Elbogen sings about having the devil on his back, over a politely grooving bass line and shaky percussion, it's not a possessed howl but a resigned whimper. On "My, How It Comes", he sounds hollowed out against the song's organ buzz, heavy piano chords, and enlivening synth coda. Elbogen's voice isn't an instrument of great range, but he knows how to work its sweetest spot, a low, breathy baritone that, on the downcast verses of "Posture, Etc." begins to sound almost like Arcade Fire's Win Butler at his most muted....full text |
| Popmatters |
| In our current media-oversaturated culture, it’s not only possible for a band to become a household name after playing a handful of gigs, it has become the norm. Then there’s the case of 34-year-old Eric Elbogen, a singer-songwriter whose decade-long list of career deflating obstacles includes sparsely attended tours, an amusing amount of line-up changes, and one very unamusing band name (Say Hi to Your Mom). Despite the fact that his band has “broken up 37 times”, Elbogen has bravely soldiered forward, releasing a new album almost every year since 2002, and eventually finding a home on the Barsuk label. His latest release, Um, Uh Oh, his third since rechristening his now one-man band Say Hi, is an unexpected breakthrough that finds Elbogen fully embracing his underdog status. Say Hi’s music, often written off as run of the mill indie, is unlikely to make much of a first impression. If it sounds like something you can easily hear someplace else, it’s because you can. For this release, Elbogen adopts Spoon’s minimalist aesthetic and sings like a caffeinated M. Ward. While earlier albums were powered by driving, Cars-y synths, this sparse, homemade collection might best be categorized as polished lo-fi. Musically, there’s scarcely an original moment here, yet Elbogen somehow manages to rise to the task of infusing familiar arrangements with new life. The prickly narrator/composer comes across like a brooding barfly who is a closeted romantic that can turn a memorable phrase on command. If you’re willing to saddle up next to him for a short spell, you might find his downer charm irresistible. Opener “Dots on Maps” effectively sets the template. Over rumbling bass and judiciously applied piano and guitar, Elbogen sings of a couple speeding willfully toward uncertainly. Nobody here has any answers, but instead of getting too worked up about it, everyone seems content to forge ahead and consider the consequences after the fact. There’s always something ugly just around the corner, and Elbogen flirts with it gleefully. On the twisty leadoff single “Devils”, he’s thrown open his house to the man downstairs and is thus unable to “make it back from the dark, dark, dark”. He closes out the song sarcastically repeating “Oh woe is me indeed”, suggesting that the dark, dark, dark might not be a bad place to be. On the deceptively bouncy “Take Ya Dancin’”, he beckons a young lady to the dance floor with “You’re stomach’s not full of butterflies / And your head’s about to burst / Your organ has no player / And your hands are looking worse.” Might as well party through the pain, right?...full text |
| Veoba |
| Does sounding eerily like Win Butler make your life as an indie musician really awesome or a million times more difficult?” Is probably the first thing I’d ask Say Hi’s one and only member, Eric Elbogen. I’d anticipate an answer of “really awesome” since the band’s had a fair share of commercial success this year, including but not limited to a Cadillac commercial and a few songs featured on Gossip Girl (additional evidence being Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs making Elbogen’s year-end top 10 list). Say Hi’s second release on Seattle-based Barsuk Records, Um, Uh Oh is scheduled for release next month and is sure to continue this upward, successful trend – for both the band and Gossip Girl’s popularity… duh...full text |
Say Hi lyrics
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