This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
By day, singer Blake Sennett is the guitarist and co-vocalist for rootsy L.A. indie-popsters Rilo Kiley.
But at night, when the shades are drawn, the world gets a little quieter and there’s a little nip in the air, the time is right Sennett’s side project The Elected and their gorgeous debut full-length Me First. Comprised from a powerful and persuasive amalgam of melancholy pop songcraft and rootsy instrumentation sprinkled with lightly glitschy electronic textures, these dozen emotively earnest, poetically potent song-stories of depression, dysfunction and dying dreams — voiced in Sennett’s croaky, creaky croon — are as compelling and unsettling as a confession breathed into your ear by a new lover. He may share the mic and the spotlight with his other band, but we’re glad Sennett puts himself first with Me First.
