Elephant gets under the skin. On III—the third album

Sometimes, Elephant gets under the skin. On III—the third album—the sun-drenched Rotterdam guitar band embraces the darker sides of life for the first time and ventures into new musical experiments. But rest assured: at the end of the day, the band always chooses the light. This is Elephant, Chapter III: more personal, more free, and no longer afraid of a little friction.

After four years, Elephant has become a seasoned live band—sometimes playing softly in the morning sun, other times passionately at a festival like Lowlands. That contrast is audible on III. As always, the song remains central, but there's much happening around it. The familiar melodic guitar pop, reminiscent of Wilco and Real Estate, is now enriched with shoegaze, vocoder, and ambient experiments. Additionally, we hear a renewed love for Band of Horses and Nada Surf—whom Elephant supported on their European tour—and even Blink-182, whose love song Always is covered by the band. Of course, there are guitar solos, but there is so much more.

While Big Thing (2022) and Shooting for the Moon (2023) still depicted the life of an up-and-coming indie band, III is primarily about a close-knit group of friends. Four friends who sometimes spend weeks together in a van, friends who have been constantly chasing their dreams for four years, and friends who sometimes set things on fire—literally and figuratively. Encounters with addiction and depression leave their mark on Tried to Sleep and For a Friend (which, according to 3voor12, deserves a spot "in the hall of fame for masterpieces"). But in Real Love and When You're Down, they cautiously climb back up together.

Vulnerability and humanity rise to the surface as the band reassures the listener: "Trust me, I feel it too"—they, too, are not immune to the world's misery. Then, in 20k, they emphasize the importance of independent thinking, warning against blindly following charismatic figures who promise the world but fail to deliver. "You never even flew high before the well ran dry," Elephant sings.

But ultimately, as the band sits around the kitchen table, pen in hand, discussing their worries, unwavering optimism always proves to be the only way forward. Thus, III closes a turbulent year with the epilogue For a Friend, Pt. 2—an instrumental invitation to reflection and acceptance.

Alongside their longtime producer Pablo van der Poel, Elephant is joined on III by indie-pop multi-instrumentalist Sofie Winterson, who supported the band on tour and quickly proved to be a perfect match. Rotterdam artist Goslink, known for turning fruit into religious delight in his work, created the painting for the album cover.

III will be released on March 28, 2025, via Excelsior Recordings, followed by an extensive tour through the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom.