REVIEW: Elbow – The Take Off and Landing of Everything

Some truly great bands have heralded from the streets of Manchester; Joy Division, Oasis, The Stone Roses to name just a few. It was in 1997 that Elbow, a five piece consisting of Guy Garvey, Mark and Craig Potter, Richard Jupp and Pete Turner, first took inspiration from their home town, and started making music.

Seventeen years and six studio albums later, the band are still a huge force in British music. The most recent release from Elbow is the ten track “The Take Off and Landing of Everything”. It’s been three months since the albums release, enough time for me to properly get my head around it.

Elbow

‘This Blue World’ is the first track of the album. Wavering notes of keyboard, speckled with notes of bass and short sweet piano riffs open the track. Possibly the most remarkable thing about Elbow is the vocal ability of Guy Garvey, a trait which is clearly demonstrated from the first line of the album. He sings with operatic resonance “This blue world and her countless sisters, and all that came before that day, our atoms straining to aline, was the universe in rehearsal, for us?” Utter poetry, sang by a master of his trade. As always, the lyricism of Elbow remains intimate and personal to the band, and in this song focuses on the love and loss of Garvey, and both the romanticism and tragedy that comes with it. The song build through percussion and solemn strums, melodies that rise like tides, and in the last verse reaches a beautiful conclusion.

‘This Blue World’ is romantic, poetic, and at times painfully honest. A brilliant start.

 

‘Charge’ is the next track, opening with lines of bass and muted strums. A hard hitting, catchy tune, curdling with the rasping vocals of Garvey as he sings of the frustrations that come with growing older, and the vanities and ignorance of younger generations. Again, Garvey’s vocals are flawless and emotive, and the musicianship of his fellow band members carry the song, making it an unmissable track.

Three tracks in, ‘Fly Boy Blue/Lunette’ begins. The first half of the song, that’s the ‘Fly Boy Blue’ bit by the way, is an honest reflection on ordinary British life, the mundanities, and ironies of our society. A track infused with gurgling bass and searing trumpet, building and building to a tumultuous crescendo. This half of the track is energetic, feisty, full of frustration. As the last note fades away, the track relaxes into it’s Lunette half. Acoustic plucks are layered beneath tranquil and tender vocals, taking a more relaxed approach. ‘Lunette’ appears to be a love song written to three things; smoking, drinking and a woman. The track, sadly, fades into silence.

The fourth song of the album, ‘New York Morning’, was the track chosen by the band to be released as a single. A romantic love song written to New York City, where Garvey not long ago emigrated.

Elbow

A twisting, spiralling note opens the song. And after a few seconds, Garvey begins the recital of colloquial poetry. Steady percussion and hollow beats of drum are interrupted by riffs of sharply melodic piano, and slow, smooth lines of guitar slither through the track. The chorus of ‘New York Morning’ is hopelessly catchy, and will remain engraved with your subconscious for hours after listening. The song is romantic, funny, and full of hope and joy. An ode to New York, a beautiful tribute to Garvey’s sanctuary, which he refers to as ‘The modern Rome’ (Paraphrased from John Lennon, he said that New York City was ‘The modern Rome, where folk are nice to Yoko’.)

Anthemic, touching and typically Elbow.

“The first to put a simple truth in words
Binds the world in a feeling all familiar
Cause everybody owns the great ideas
And it feels like there’s a big one round the corner

Antenna up and out into New York
Somewhere in all that talk is all the answers
And oh my giddy aunt New York can talk
It’s the modern Rome and folk are nice to Yoko”

Five songs in, ‘Real Life (Angel)’ begins with rattling symbols, and subtly groaning keyboard. Another tentative and gentle song, with yet more poetry, and instrumentals that rise and flow like liquid. Garvey’s angelic vocals shine through every time he releases a ‘Hallelujah’ from his lungs, and the use of viola and violin only add to the beauty of the track. ‘Honey Sun’ follows, opening with background studio noise and a characteristic exclamation of ‘Jesus!’ from Garvey. Silence ensues for a millisecond. Calm vocals are layered over repetitive beats of electric drum, and slowly unravelling hums lead up to the chorus. Another set of anthemic lines, again full of colloquialism and character, remaining true to the personalities of the band members.

 

‘My Sad Captains’ is the seventh track of the album. It begins to unravel with a piece of music reminiscent of a fair ground ride, which is soon drowned out by percussion and the elegant, swooping vocals of Garvey. Backing vocals warmly sing the line ‘Oh My Soul’ between lines of Garvey’s emotive lyricism, possibly the most incredible set of lyrics produced by Elbow, ‘My Sad Captains’ is beautiful, tender, and alive with personality and experience (you’d expect it to be, seeing as the title came from Shakespeare’s ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’). Garvey mourns the loss of nights spent with friends, and addresses both the issues ageing and mortality. Utter poetry. Horns and other brass instruments flurry through out the track, echoing the operatic Mancunian tones of the front man. With one last belt of the chorus, ‘My Sad Captains’ fades.

“Another sunrise with my sad captains,
With who I choose to lose my mind,
And if it’s so we only pass this way but once,
What a perfect waste of time.”

The final trinity of songs are all that remains. ‘Colour Fields’ is a percussive track, with layers of cushion-soft keyboard and guitar. As Garvey resonates his rasping, delicate tones a tambourine keeps time. Garvey’s long notes contrast brilliantly with the short, sweet notes burrowed beneath his vocals. ‘Colour Fields’ is a beautiful almost four minutes of music, and a track I fear could get forgotten about by most listeners. The finish of the track is soft and mellow, starkly contrasting to the start of the album’s penultimate song, and title track, is ‘The Take of and Landing of Everything’. Starting with floods of electronica and percussive rattles, Garvey’s vocals smooth over the top of them, but still sound slightly drowned amongst all the other sounds. If anything, I’d have to say the title track of the album was slightly too busy. Too many melodies, too many overlaps, and at over seven minutes long, becomes slightly repetitive, a low point of an elsewhere brilliant album. As the crashing of symbols and trills of piano quieten down, the album’s final song launches.

Elbow

‘The Blanket Of Night’ begins with stripped down vocals and basic percussion, but it soon a-wash with atmospheric keyboard, which chills the skin and only extenuates the feeling behind Garvey’s lyrics. Double bass is a constant figure in this track, constantly lurking and shadowing, holding it all together. Garvey sings metaphorically of a couple on a boat journeying against the turbulence and calm offered up by life. Garvey sings of regrets, mistakes and all through the use of lyrics that’s could be published simply as poetry. A good ending, to an even better album.

“Gone, the light from her eyes
With the lives that we made
Just the two of us
In the night on the waves
Moving silent her lips
By the moon’s only light
Sewing silver prayers
In the blanket of night”

‘The Take off and Landing of Everything’ is monumental for Elbow. An album full of career defining songs, full of poetry, imagination and technical ability on all fronts. Perhaps the biggest criticism I can come up with is it’s lack of edge when compared to the subtly dark ‘Seldom Seen Kid’ of 2008. Despite the disappointment of the title track, and thanks to songs such as ‘New York Morning’ and ‘My Sad Captains’ I’d recommend this album to anyone.

An incredible album, give it a listen.

9/10

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