Elbow - 'Grounds For Divorce'
It takes a certain amount of petulance to spend a decent amount of your working life announcing (from a very lofty perch, I might add) that there are far too many 'indie' bands chasing the elusive post-Coldplay dollar - all of whom could perhaps learn to tone down the enormous reverb and the pretending to be overwhelmed with bliss, and to tone up the personality and verve - only to launch into a rabid froth when a band like Elbow come along, making a broadly similar sort of noise.
And petulance being what petulance is, I don't care if it looks like double standards, so ner! Elbow are simply head, shoulder and upper arm above anyone else at making this kind of music. Not least because they always, even in their most floaty, drippy, heartbroken moments, sound like they have a backbone of cast iron.
And they're blessed with a singer whose voice can go from delicate whisper to howling rasp without sounding affected or posturing. Plus they were doing this stuff before it was fashionable, so it's fine that they continue to do so even now, when it's not. In this song, Elbow play the blues like they're standing in the middle of a tornado in the dust-bowl at the end of the world.
Their version of the post-Coldplay cathedral of sound is one which takes place in a wide open landscape, with the flying monkeys from The Wizard Of Oz screaming down from a blackened sky, and then a soft, intimate chorus arriving like a bolt of white light that makes everything go a bit soft, slow and swimmy. It's a brief respite which can't last long, then it's back to the monkeys and the pounding gale.
As a song it picks you up, messes with your innards, ruffles up your hair, scares you a little bit, kisses you on the top of the head, and then plonks you back on the floor roughly, in a cloud of dust.
Now, I don't know about you, but I didn't get any of that from One Night Only. And until I do, I'm sticking with the masters of the art. Someone has to keep standards up around here, after all.
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 10th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
Elbow are clearly brilliant, end of.
luv this song!
only heared it yesterday but thinck its just brill
Have to say, I never saw Elbow as similar to Coldplay, certainly not after the first Coldplay album, and I don't agree with the comparison. Chris Martin is so wishy washy lyrically, which is something Elbow have never been.
[No, I agree. What I was trying to say is that a lot of bands made BIG INDIE once Coldplay broke in the States, and it was all cack, and I said so at the time. Elbow had been lumped in with those bands, and while some people could say it's double-standards to slam, say, Thirteen Senses, and praise Elbow, I would say it's not. For the reasons you and I have both given. - Fraser]
Gotcha, and I have to say I agree with your perspective on Thirteen Senses, although I think the labels were somewhat to blame. They were signed way too quickly, and should have worked their backsides off a bit and before being picked up. Might have made them a bit darker, more worldly and credible if they had toured a bit, been kicked about by the industry and then learned to bite back.