Elbow – Audio Vertigo – Album Review
by Killian Laher

After the contemplative Flying Dream 1, Elbow return a couple of years later with their tenth album.  This album is an altogether different beast from its predecessor.  It opens with Things I’ve Been Telling Myself For Years, which despite a wordy title is a great big singalong song, with Guy Garvey’s yearning vocals joined by a cast of thousands in studio to drive home the chorus.  There’s a ‘busyness’ to a lot of the songs here.  They cram loads of ideas into Lovers’ Leap, Talk Talk synths, brass, a catchy melody and Garvey’s voice is treated with some peculiar effects.   Balu takes it that little bit too far, there is just so much going on, heavy drums, keyboards, prominent bass plus brass and a chant of “Balu Balu Balu Balu”.

The simpler, emotional Very Heaven is more straightforward and it suits them better, while Her To the Earth is like prime Peter Gabriel, Garvey singing “We live in a troubling age”.  Most of the album is extremely upbeat, you won’t be staring moodily out the window to the propulsive The Picture or the rocky Good Blood Mexico City.  The second odd little chant Poker Face leads into Knife Fight, one of the simpler, and it has to be said, better songs here.  The final track, From the River, is a brisk, breezy closer, which at nearly six minutes long outlasts a fair portion of the album, and feels like something of a summation.

Nothing here outstays its welcome, and the album lasts just under 40 minutes.   There is little or no brooding here, the album is poppy, with songs designed to be belted out at venues this summer.

Lovers’ Leap