It's been decidedly odd this year watching Elbow finally clasped to the hearts of the nation at large as much as to mine. Seeing those familiar, reassuring faces staring out from unfamiliar places in newspapers, hearing their songs in endless sports coverage reels, channel-hopping from "Grounds For Divorce" soundtracking a trailer on C4 to it gracing another on 5. Hearing "Mirrorball" at a work training conference may have been the most surreal. It's been immensely cheering with it though, as rarely has belated success been so thoroughly deserved and, even ignoring their previously amassed wonders, The Seldom Seen Kid was worthy of all kinds of raptures.
Totally uncompromising, their songwriting remained as personal and individualistic as ever. Again they demonstrated that there is never a need to aim for universality in broad generalisations when poetically expressed emotions are far more relatable grounded in specifics, and again they showed no truck with making their songs straightforward and easy to take in any more than they did with being deliberately difficult. The belief came across clearly, as always, that if they got it right the audience should come to them if willing, and now they turned out to be more right than ever.
Starting off with a very Elbow bang then, "Starlings" strung big fanfares around an exposed moment of honesty and love. 'You are the only thing in any room you're ever in' is a breathtaking sentiment and the musical eruption that eventually follows seems only appropriate, but it's all the more poignant for the doubt and false bravado that surrounds it - the next line after all is 'I'm stubborn, selfish and too old'.
The bluesy swagger and thwacking percussion of "Grounds For Divorce" drill home the deadening routine of its hopeless drinking, as vulnerabilities seep through into the chorus and its hole 'down which I cannot help but fall'. "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" stretched yearning and alienation to new skyscraping heights musically and in content. "The Fix" was also a whole new type of genius, Guy Garvey and Richard Hawley hamming it up as two scheming cheats to gleeful results with just a hint of sadness at the fact that they're as likely mere fantasists as anything more sneaking through.
Even "One Day Like This", which I shall again call the best single Embrace never recorded, should take that as a compliment (as long as they don't intend to go there for good) and features some distinct Elbow touches, not least 'kiss me when my lips are thin'.
The Seldom Seen Kid also just sounds amazing. Now self-producing, their painstaking pride in rich and dynamic sound, alongside their belief in album as artform, showed through more than ever to create their most sonically gorgeous record yet. Every little detail given its own space to breathe and make an impact and the end result is an album to shut the world out from and get lost in. You can listen to a song like "Mirrorball" and be totally absorbed by every daintily graceful piano note and soft swell of strings, and by the way that by its end it's as if Garvey is whispering in your ear, before you even get to its considerable emotional content - and that's quite something to tag on as an extra.
1 comment:
Right on!
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