15 Elbow: The Take Off and Landing of Everything

Are Elbow now a victim of their own continued brilliance? Of course ‘The Take Off and Landing of Everything’ is wonderful, but you just expect that don’t you? We don’t just believe and assume every Elbow release will be fantastic, it’s now such an anticipated event that we simply take for granted how fabulous it is. The album was released, received rave review, then was swiftly forgotten. Perhaps Elbow have simply settled into a groove now- content to forever release great music though never really challenging their sound. At least their latest release doesn’t contain a shameless One Day Like This ape akin to ‘Build a Rocket Boys’ Open Arms. As fabulous as the album is, you can’t help but dream that they’d let loose a bit more and throw off the self-imposed shackles of their sound a little more frequently, the absolutely fan-fucking-brillaintly-awesome-tastic Charge is a small hint of just how amazing Elbow can be when they think slightly more outside the box of their own conventions.

Full album

Cover

‘What do you ponder child? Are you already at such a young age wary of life’s eternal struggles? Yet you see in the distance some great beauty and are still in thrall to the delightful possibilities of human condition?’

‘No, just wondering when you’re gonna clean up that crap I’ve just done’

‘Jesus… Anyone fancy a pint?’

3/5