The weight of expectation weighed heavy on Elbow’s shoulders for this album. They stole the nation's hearts in 2008 with The Seldom Seen Kid marrying critical and commercial success in a way which even the most cynical couldn’t sneer at. I discovered them through that album and investigated their previous three. Each one is phenomenally gorgeous. The Seldom Seen Kid was subtly different in a lot of ways from previous efforts. It opened up a more organic sound from the band, forgoing the delicate electronic blips and guitar whirls of previous albums.
So where could the band go? They'd fulfilled the underdog dream, what now? What could they sing about? Frontman and lyricist Guy Garvey himself stated "...when heartbreaking melancholia is your currency, success and contentment can be a problem". There were plenty fearing that the band would stray into Coldplay/U2 territory. What they've actually done is made their most intimate and nuanced record to date.
The album opens with "The Birds" - a shifting, whirling 8 minuter which belies any fears about commercialisation. The instrumentation of the track signals a trend which runs throughout the album, which is that the Elbow boys are further nurturing their prog-rock/post-rock tendencies. This has been a key part of their sound for years, originating from a love of Genesis, Talk Talk, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. When you post reviews as a normal listener rather than a professional critic, you have time to read plenty of other reviews before your own goes up. Lots I've read have commented on how most of the band seem to take more of a step back in favour of Garvey’s vocals. I think that's a criminal misreading - the rest of the band are at their most spry and involved, nursing their creative post-rock tendencies throughout. Being subtle doesn’t mean they’re not involved.
The opener is followed by "Lippy Kids" - the first track unveiled on Boxing Day. It's stunning and draws us right into the lyrical theme of the album - reflecting on your youth. Garvey looks on affectionately at a bunch of hoodies hanging round on a corner, nostalgic for his own days there. Some of his best lyrics to date drift effortlessly out of his mouth as he croons "the cigarette senate was everything then" and grins over how he "never perfected that simian stroll".
This is followed by the euphoric orchestral pop of "With Love". Built on handclaps, rows of backing vocals and an almost cheeky bounces and stabs from the bass and piano, this is an album track that stands up as strong as anything else here. Placing Garvey against the backing vocals highlights the aura that he's always given off that makes you feel as if you'd follow him into the darkest depths of Salford and back - and you would when he can sing about dentures and make it sound so glorious.
"Neat Little Rows" is the anthemic, stomping lead single - this album's "Grounds For Divorce". It's followed swiftly by the album's glorious centrepiece "Jesus is a Rochdale Girl". This is one of Elbow's rare truly acoustic moments, and Garvey definitely takes centre stage on this one. Listing fragmented images and memories from his early twenties, it bowls you over how he can put equal gravitas on the words "forty five CDs" as he does "nothing to be proud of and nothing to regret". The glistening cherry on the cake is the expertly placed, slightly off kilter keyboard stabs of Craig Potter.
Just when you thought the band might be slipping into lullabies, "The Night Will Always Win" gives way to the jazzy swagger of "High Ideals". They've got a surprising penchant for jazzy swagger do Elbow. Comes with the Mancunian territory I guess. They one-up many of their un-evolved, knuckle dragging Mancunian contemporaries (naming no names) however with the beautiful horn section and atonally inspired guitar chimes that lace this track. Elbow have displayed time and time again their ability to perfectly articulate male emotion without sounding crass or forced. The Seldom Seen Kid was a tribute to the band's friend Bryan Glancy, who died suddenly in 2008. Moments on that album capture male friendship in a way that I honestly wouldn't have thought was possible. The band continue to paint a nuanced, trembling picture of male emotion on this record as they look back on their pasts.
Not to suggest that they haven't got more heart bursting anthems up their sleeve. "Open Arms" is glorious and colossal without ever sounding overblown and hollow. The twinkles of piano, mandolin and strings all swell up around Garvey as he belts "WE'VE GOT OPEN ARMS FOR BROKEN HEARTS, LIKE YOURS MY BOY, COME HOME AGAIN!" It's the kind of thing that makes you want to run back home to all those faces from your past and tell them how much you love them. The bass thuds in the bridge will hit you in the pit of your stomach like a mallet, inducing that trembling, overwhelming joy and love of home that shakes makes you feel worryingly small in the big, grown-up world.
After an eerie reprise of "The Birds", the album bids au revoir with the ballad "Dear Friends". Garvey's lyrics are at colloquially elegant best - "Dear friends, you are angels and trumps, you are magi". It plays the album out like the final, drunken, heartfelt goodbyes at a wedding. When you're overwhelmed with sadness and joy in equal, teary eyed measure. All the faces you've known and loved and built your life on surround you and you can't even articulate the swelling in your chest. Knowing you've just experienced something indescribably beautiful. A landmark. Maybe not for the universe or the rest of the world. But for you. Your world. Your heart.
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