Artist – Album: Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys!
Released: 4th
March 2011
Sounds Like: Old Elbow
Tonight I go to a Sigur
Rós gig (yay!), but today it’s Elbow that I’ll be blogging about. The
two bands may have come from wildly different places – both in terms of style
and geography (people in Bury, Elbow’s hometown, know Iceland only as the place
that Kerry Katona and Stacey Solomon get their Christmas dinners from) – but their
lengthy careers they’ve actually begun to follow the same lines.
Sigur Ros first made an international impression with the
release of Ágætis
byrjun, their second album and one chock full of glacial, epic
soundscapes, but it was their fourth effort Takk…, and the song ‘Hoppípolla’, in particular that made them household names. That
track soon became the BBC’s go to tune for uplifting music, soundtracking every
single bloody montage and trailer they released between 2005 and 2008, until it
was supplanted by Elbow’s own ‘One Day Like This’.
Elbow’s own path to that particular crowd pleaser came from
far less captivating, quieter beginnings. They scored a critical success with
their debut album Asleep in the Back, but their penchant for acoustic
melancholy and experimental wiggery meant that it didn’t really stick with the
punters. However, they developed a penchant for penning anthemic singalongs culminating
with 2008’s The Seldom Seen Kid.
After achieving commercial recognition, however, both groups
went into their shells. Sigur Rós’
latest album Valtari reverts to sonic introspection and icy mood pieces. And
this, Build a Rocket Boys!, is much less like Coldplay or Snow Patrol and more
like the Elbow of old. It can be sombre and sparse, but it’s effective and affecting.
Guy Garvey has a wonderful gruff voice and a knack of making everyday occurrences
resonate. In both cases, they may be a change in direction but they’re welcome
here.
Now to gig!
Albumaday... rating:
6/10
1. The
Birds – 8:03
2. Lippy
Kids – 6:06
3. With
Love – 4:12
4. Neat
Little Rows – 5:39
5. Jesus
Is a Rochdale Girl – 3:18
6. The
Night Will Always Win – 4:24
7. High
Ideals – 5:39
8. The
River – 2:51
9. Open
Arms – 4:53
10. The
Birds (reprise) – 1:31
11. Dear
Friends – 5:01
Listen to ‘Jesus Is a
Rochdale Girl’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzIm7Ylkqw
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