Elbow - Asleep in the Back
I finally did it. I picked an Elbow album for your listening pleasure.
Slack meme-ing aside, I do think Elbow are a truly innovative band and Asleep in the Back, their debut, is probably the most unique sounding album they've made. From Manchester (England), Elbow formed in 1990 (first as Mr. Soft and then just Soft) and released three EPs after changing their name (finally) to Elbow in 1997. In 2001, they released their first full length, which is what you're going to be listening to.
I'm sorry if you wanted something faster. This whole album is mid-tempo, and I'll admit that I wish a song or two were a bit sped up. It's a minor nit, though, in an otherwise fantastic record. Despite coming from the factory town of Manchester and rainy, gloomy England, I find Elbow's music to be rather uplifting. Guy Garvey's voice can soar with the best of them, but it's the arrangements and textures that make Elbow so special.
Little Beast, for example. The song begins as if Guy Garvey had stolen Geoff Barrow and Clive Deamer from Portishead. You feel like you're underwater, at least for a bit. But then Garvey comes in, and eventually you get a nice little guitar riff, and you can kind of feel that "uplift" that I think Elbow are masters at weaving into otherwise slow, submerged sounding songs.
Elbow can also be jarring, and that is part of their allure. Powder Blue is one of the most beautiful tracks on the album, but towards the very end, dissonant horns mix with Garvey's quiet wailing leading to the sound of broken glass and the end of the song. It's a pretty sudden, uncomfortable end to an otherwise gorgeous song. Coming Second, quite possibly my favorite track on the record, achieves a similar effect towards the end with heavily distorted guitars.
Songs like Bitten by the Tailfly show Elbow's ability to rock out. The rhythm section in this band, made up of drummer Richard Jupp (who, it was just announced, recently left the band to pursue his newly created drum school which I would LOVE to attend (cough cough Christmas is coming up)) and bassist Pete Turner hold very unique grooves and are really good at playing off of one an other. It just adds to the dynamic and atmosphere that the band builds throughout their music.
But really, Guy Garvey is the star of this show. Like I said earlier, he's got an incredible voice (often compared to Peter Gabriel) and is extraordinarily emotive. The band name may suck, and some songs may border on cheesy (especially from some of their later albums), but I truly believe this is one of the best bands to come around in the 2000s and deserve to be up there with the typical names we think of when we think of British rock in the last 20-30 years.
So put on some headphones and wait for a chilly, gray day. This is not an album to put on in the background. If you have the time to really sit down and take in this record, you'll better hear everything the band can do and truly get a better grasp on whether you like it or don't. This is an album that greatly rewards the patient listener, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
