Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Elbow
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 2017
Length: 48:25
Rating: 4/5
Elbow, one of the finest and most distinctive alternative rock bands in the UK, are back this year with a new studio album called »Little Fictions«. The band has been around since 1997, a full 20 years under the Elbow name, even though its members had been playing together for years before that. With the new record they keep on cultivating their subtly layered, one-of-a-kind sound, where a refined aesthetic of sonic exploration reigns, lining up emotions of melancholy and longing! »Little Fictions« again evokes feelings of mysticism, often speaks in an intimate, almost shy voice, and gets dreamy too. On the new album Elbow remain masters of the incredibly soft blending of the pretty, shifting pastels of a sonic landscape, one that opens up a fresh adventure in a world of unique, hard-to-pin-down art.
Once again Guy Garvey sounds now like Peter Gabriel (solo, Genesis), now like Gary Brooker (Procol Harum). His voice remains a perfect one-off in contemporary alternative rock, one that would fit right in with bands working in the tradition of classic British prog rock.
As you’d pretty much expect from Elbow’s down-to-earth sound, »Little Fictions« serves up an incredibly sensual and juicy sonic concentrate of production warmth, the organic liveliness of natural tones, and supple velvetiness. In its many repetitive loops the album carries a mood through which you can easily drift off into states of mental rapture, or into the bosom of »trip-iodic« experiences. A touch of psychedelia is subtly woven into the charisma of the tracks.
In the all-important arranging department, piano and a repeating rhythmic structure most often join hands, like the shy brushwork on the gentle, dreamily mournful and dainty Trust the Sun. Garvey’s unique voice naturally sits at the center of the album’s unfolding. Elbow are maturing. The transcendental moment of mystical moods blooms on the record in an instant. That’s the case with the opener Magnificent (She Says), where the band impresses with a refined feel for gradually building a mystical atmosphere. Round and round. The musically full, warm bass line takes on the key role, while the keyboards and repeating loops stir up that mystical feeling. The band carries this compositional approach on in the first single from the new album, called All Disco, though here it comes in a somewhat livelier and more joyful way, precisely thanks to Garvey’s vocal approach. The difference is that Elbow achieve the solemn mood in the opening Magnificent through a gradual integration of orchestral elements, while in All Disco (the song was inspired by Black Francis of Pixies) they do it with added vocal harmonies, backed up by a vocoder.
»Little Frictions« is the mature continuation of the artistic story of its predecessor »Take Off And Landing of Everything« (2014). The new album is steeped in an artistic minimalism of short, concise compositional strokes and delicately measured arranging steps, in which Elbow masterfully hold on to the common thread of their unique, self-grown stance, their very own musical ID card.
Elbow fans will be thrilled with »Little Fictions«, since it extends and deepens the esoteric, extraterrestrial floating of its predecessor »Take Off And Landing of Everything«, while serving up a fresh bag of ideas and an even bigger helping of sensual sophistication, which, precisely because of its theatrical tenderness and sweet sound, hits that much harder and gets its hooks in that much deeper. In that sense Elbow have hit a new maturity milestone in their artistic evolution, and »Little Fictions« is, in a word, a gorgeous new achievement and an artistic gem from a band that will most certainly »stick« in your CD players for a long time to come.
Elbow – Magnificent (She Says), official video:
Line-up
Guy Garvey – vocals
Craig Potter – keyboards
Mark Potter – guitar
Pete Turner – bass
Alex Reeves – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Halle Orchestra – strings
London Contemporary Voices – backing vocals
Production
Craig Potter
Tracklist
1. Magnificent (She Says)
2. Gentle Storm
3. Trust the Sun
4. All Disco
5. Head For Supplies
6. Firebrand & Angel
7. K2
8. Montparnasse
9. Little Fictions
10. Kindling
