Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys! album review

The fifth album by Elbow is a nostalgic look back at days gone by, lyrics beautifully set against Guy Garvey’s wistful tenor and lush arrangements.

Elbow has always had an independent sense of music arrangement, using synth or percussion as just the right touch at the right time, instead of relying on one beat to carry the song. Neat Little Rows starts off with a rock bass beat, the time signature offset just enough to introduce Garvey’s writing:  ” Lay my bones in neat little rows..”

Lippy Kids has garnered a lot of positive attention, and for good reason. Aside from the baldly frank title, the song jabs at cultural notions of youth, making a case for dreams and schemes, remembering them before they get buried under the debris of life.

The group has the qualifications to become commercially successful, especially after the attention that their last album (“The Seldom Seen Kid”) generated, but the group remains on the edges of commercialism, preferring to have their listeners find their own way to the music. Deliberate and exacting in their delivery, breathtaking in the orchestration, Elbow maintains expectations with this release, with most fans (myself included) enthusiastically declaring them exceeded.

I especially loved the reprise of The Birds, with  a near-spoken vocal by John Moseley, an obviously older singer backed by an acapella choir. So simple, so symmetrical.

So Elbow. Well done, lads.