ELBOW Vinilo y CD

Review: Greater Manchester art-rock auteurs Elbow return with their highly anticipated tenth full-length Audio Clarity. Known for their "one for the masses, one for the few" dynamic that saw 2019's experimental Giants Of All Sizes offset by 2021's lush, intimate Flying Dream 1; their latest venture appears poised to recapture the avant-garde post-rock machinations of their earliest work, pre-dating the Mercury Prize winning success of 2008's The Seldom Seen Kid, and harking all the way back to their more challenging Cast Of Thousands days. Described by vocalist/lyricist Guy Garvey as "gnarly, seedy grooves created by us playing together in garagey rooms", the mathematic, slow burn of lead single 'Lovers' Leap' twists odd time signatures around interlocked grooves while building towards a post-funk finish, sonically and compositionally highlighting their more involved, frenetic approach as opposed to their recent output's more minimal set-building. In short, Elbow are back for themselves and whoever else cares to follow them yet again down their labyrinthine tapestry of artful ruminations.

Review: If there's been one defining element of 2017 so far, it's been the stress that it's put a good proportion of the Western world under, and with this in mind it seems that there couldn't be a better time for a new Elbow album, and for the always mildly world-weary yet magnanimous and uplifting strains of Guy Garvey and co. to offer succour. Just as well then that it's perhaps their most richly crafted effort to date, offering warm optimism, a widescreen sweep of sound and their mainman's plangent croon in full effect, amidst an aural landscape that will do more than satisfy long terms fans of their elegiac art, rather something of a balm for these afflicted times.