By BRUCE DENNILL
Elbow: The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
Elbow are not your average band. They make music their way, including literary lyrical references, telling honest stories and making mini-epics rather than songs (the average length of the tunes on this collection is nearly six minutes.
Vocalist Guy Garvey is the common thread, his voice warm and welcoming even while he’s communicating messages about minor mid-life crises (Charge), missing old friends (My Sad Captains), falling in love with a place (New York Morning) and the endless adjustments that come with growing up and taking on new responsibilities (the title track).
The album feels like all the music comes from the same place – perhaps a minor criticism when translated to the way everything sounds (similar tone and pacing). When you consider, however, that different band members wrote the music for various songs at different times, in isolation, about matters that were deemed important to them as individuals, this unity of purpose and imagination is extraordinary. It’s a testament to the bond that musicians often develop when they’re part of the same band for a long time, usually expressed in insincere documentaries via descriptions of the controlled substances they’ve shared.
The Take Off And Landing Of Everything articulates similar thoughts in vastly more profound ways, with Craig Potter’s sumptuous production offering more proof that Elbow are ahead of their peers in most ways.
- This Blue World 7.50
- Charge 7.25
- Fly Boy Blue/Lunette 7.50
- New York Morning 8.00
- Real Life (Angel) 7.50
- Honey Sun 7.50
- My Sad Captains 8.00
- Colour Fields 7.50
- The Take Off And Landing Of Everything 7.50
- The Blanket Of Night 7.00
Rating: 7.525
