By Elbow are probably (if not) one of the hardest bands on the planet to review. For an up and coming music journalist like me with very limited in-depth/technical musical know-how. It becomes incredibly difficult to tackle a band that has so much (I hate repeating myself) depth in the music they create.
So let’s start from the beginning shall we?
Elbow recently released their seventh Studio album ‘Little FIctions’ which is excellent news for the liberal 50+ year olds of today. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind of bit of dreary Garvey on a wet Sunday morning; or the occasional appearance on Jools Holland, but the lack-lustering and panicked ‘Little Fictions’ attempts to compensate in areas where I feel like the band would not have struggled without key elements of their rhythmic ora.
If you didn’t know or quite frankly couldn’t give a nuns cunt, Elbows original drummer Richard Jupp left the group after 27 years of playing together to pursue a solo career of his own. That sort of big change can seriously knock a group back, Especially whilst in the studio. A lot of this album seems to focus solely on the percussion elements of every track which doesn’t really give much bang for buck when the man that helped formulate your rhythms doesn’t want to help write your album.
Truth be told, I really liked the band’s last record: ‘The Take Off and Landing of Everything’. Their experimentation certainly pressed all the right buttons for a new listener such as myself, especially the sobre and blue-natured ‘Sad Captains’. But that’s not to say I am brushing this album off entirely.
Elbow are back on track to be hitting the charts once more with their Morrisey meets Coldplay-esque tune ‘Magnificent (She Said)’. Elements of the bands experiments from the previous album has definitely influenced a new age for the group that just needs tweaking ever so slightly with their original sound. Only time will tell.
Phew. That’s wasn’t so bad now, was it?
