Elbow Reveal Album Art and Tracklisting

That there is the album cover for Elbow's forthcoming album Build a Rocket Boys! Don't know about you, but I'm rather upsettingly excited by the prospect. I did a post last week about the appearance of a videoed performance of new track "Lippy Kids" - which was the working title of the album, but is now the song from which the album draws it's title.

They've also released a tracklisting:

01 “Lippy Kids”
02 “The Birds”
03 “With Love”
04 “Neat Little Rows”
05 “Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl”
06 “The Night Will Always Win”
07 “High Ideals”
08 “The River”
09 “Open Arms”
10 “The Birds (Reprise)”
11 “Dear Friends”

They've said that the album is due to be about childhood and nostalgia. I think that's a wonderful thing considering the success these guys experienced in the wake of their last album, 2008's The Seldom Seen Kid. In my speculations and worries about where one of my favourite bands could go from there, I imagined them tragically stagnating, writing an album that's not really about anything and comes off as a bloated and dreary attempt to sound anthemic (which wouldn't help dispel all of the Coldplay comparisons that small minded destractors throw their way...) But it looks like success has made them cast their mind back fondly on where they've come from. "Lippy Kids" is incredibly sentimental, overflowing with fondness and nostalgia, and if the rest of the album adopts a similar stance it could provide an interesting counterpoint to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs from last year.

Also, the final track is titled "Dear Friends", and reminded me that when I saw Elbow at Wembley Arena in March 2009, they got the audience to sing a chorus they'd written and then recorded it. I could still sing it to you now, and it went like this:

"Dear friends, who are loved,
So much more than you'll ever know"

It was a lovely melody, and I hope they've kept the recording. I would LOVE to know I was part of a (hopefully brilliant) album by one of my favourite bands! Though I'm not too sure how I'd feel if that song went on to be used for the closing montage of some vile, parasitic reality TV show... but enough about that...

I just get really excited when little snippets and tasters of an album get revealed prior to its release - whether it's album art, tracklistings or songs. I'm well up for the new Elbow album, as I hope you are. They've got a host of live shows on the way and I'm hoping to catch them - see you there?