Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys!
April 12th, 2011
Fiction/Downtown
Score: 8.0
The weight of expectation is a bit of a new thing for Elbow. Following the much deserved success of 2008′s The Seldom Seen Kid, the Manchester veterans finally have released a record while the public is paying full attention. But that’s a little unfair to this wonderfully consistent band. Those who have followed their career which began under the unlikely banner of “Next Coldplay” back in the early part of the millennium will know that Elbow do not make bad albums; on the contrary, they only make very good ones. And Build A Rocket Boys! is no exception.
While there is no doubting The Seldom Seen Kid was a fantastic achievement, for me it was not any more sublime than the 3 albums that preceded it. Stylistically, the band have developed and honed their sound over the past 10 years but the unmistakable voice of Guy Garvey holds all their records together, putting forth an almost trademark Elbow sound. To outsiders listening in, Garvey most likely comes over as a tired, sad man but though there is certainly a large portion of melancholy in these songs, there is a quiet, inspiring charm that makes the music of Elbow both cathartic and uplifting.
‘Lippy Kids’ is one of the most poignant tracks the band has ever produced. Garvey takes a sympathetic position with misunderstood youth, the finger-pointing and judgment of out-of-touch adults ringing in their ears. “Lippy kids on the corner again, settling like crows/Though I never perfected that simian stroll”, he sings empathetically, though admittedly a generation apart. This album is one of memory crawling back to the days of youth for the band with Garvey revisiting his early days. “Do they know these days are golden?” he asks before offering the best bit of advice for giving the finger to the doubters: “Build a rocket, boys.” The track itself is quiet and thoughtful; simple piano and orchestration supports a softening vocal which together produces lump-in-throat, angelic perfection.
Opener ‘The Birds’ has the hypnotic element so prevalent on classic track ‘Any Day Now’ from the band’s debut along with the soaring sense of anthemic grandeur possessed by something like ‘Fallen Angel’ from Cast Of Thousands. And going through the album, there are many reference points to Elbow’s past musically as well as Garvey’s aforementioned adolescence. ‘Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl’ is actually a bit of a folk song with some keyboard interference as Garvey almost mumbles over his lyrics whereas on following track ‘The Night Will Always Win’, you could imagine the singer delivering a sermon to a multitude of followers in a large cathedral — such poise and confidence from the baritone voice.
A close competitor to ‘One Day Like This’ from The Seldom Seen Kid comes on heavenly singalong ‘Open Arms’ where Garvey unleashes with a willing choir doing their best to back him up. “The man you are will know the boy you were” being one of the more assuring lyrics for those fearful of approaching the end of adolescence, with “Come home again, everyone’s here, everyone’s here” an extra bit of reassurance that just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean you have to lose spirit or imagination. The closest thing to a rock song comes on ‘Neat Little Rows’ but it’s far from conventional with some definite Kid A/Amnesiac inspiration and similar ideas can be found on ‘High Ideals’ through a wealth of instrumentation and tension building rhythm. Piano hymn ‘The River’ is a drunken tale both mournful and beautiful and closer ‘Dear Friends’ is another gracefully executed piece of nostalgic brilliance; dreamy, comforting, and honest.
So to look at Build A Rocket Boys! as the impossible follow-up is clearly wrong. No shadow should be cast against it as the album stands confidently alongside what has come before. The anger that Garvey possessed on Leaders In The Free World or the loss felt on The Seldom Seen Kid are not as abundant here as he finds himself lost in a world of nostalgia. This is a celebratory record, a happy expression of life and the deep impact individuals have upon each other along the way. It’s an album about friendship and memories and it just so happens that as you start to look back on life, some of the happier times may produce a tear or two as you think of them.
Calling this sad or depressing completely misses the point. Elbow give you real human emotion, they don’t hide behind anything other that their singer’s majestic vocal chords which do their best to inspire. “You were with me today”, he sings on ‘Dear Friends’, “You were in my head, in my heart.” Inspired by their past, Guy Garvey and Elbow have built another rocket.
Matthew James