As Elbow frontman Guy Garvey and his band of brothers push the envelope on their dizzyingly diverse 10th album, there’s no mistaking the ambition afoot. The loping gait that propels Things I’ve Been Telling Myself For Years; the Fela Kuti-ish exoticism of Lover’s Leap; the progressive soul vibes of Her To The Earth – all of these signal a band vacating their comfort zone to dazzling effect.
Garvey’s poetic lyrics and emotive, warm-hug of a voice are the threads that bind, his unvarnished Mancunian vowels still pancake-flat. Even Knife Fight – a tale of a real-life skirmish he witnessed in Morocco – manages to sound welcoming and inclusive, its outro hook comprised of the joyful chant, ‘Hallelujah, buy us a pint!’
