The Little Band That Could; swirling, giddying, disorienting, romantic majesty; near made me cry; great; a teensy bit overrated; a national treasure; turning into Henry VIII; too many songs that rely on suspended fourths; big hooky hooks; Manchester’s Bury’s finest; better than black pudding!
That’s what YOU said about Elbow! And now that the Christmas fairy dust has had time to settle, the brussels sprouts are nearly finished up and the trifle is but a distant memory, it’s time to present the final Elbow spillOVER playlist for your edutainment.
I asked for your suggestions and I got more than enough. As a bonus, there were plenty of instructive comments and some enlightening debate which kept me entertained for much of the day on Christmas Eve.
Trawling the long history of the ‘Spill (well, OK – I shoved the word ‘Elbow’ in the search box) I found sporadic references to Elbow starting as early as July 2008 with a blimpy/snadfrod item, which largely concerned the volume at which The Seldom Seen Kid should best be played, followed soon after by a gem of a shoegazer post requesting our nominations for best album by every artiste ever, which, as far as Elbow were concerned generated one vote for Cast Of Thousands and one for The Seldom Seen Kid.
Then, on 9 September 2008, DarceysDad posted his celebration of Elbow’s Mercury Prize victory – a post which is well worth a revisit:
http://thespillblog.co.uk/2008/09/09/e-is-for-elbow-and-for-eeebahgum-theyve-dunnit/
On 4 January 2009 came the announcement that Seldom Seen Kid had won the far more significant 2008 ‘Spill Album of the Year award and this was followed by snadfrod’s effusive review of Elbow’s 2009 gig at the Bridgwater Hall, Manchester accompanied by the Hallé Orchestra:
http://thespillblog.co.uk/2009/07/09/hallbow/
What I was really searching for (and didn’t find) was a post which I’m sure I haven’t imagined from an unknown ‘Spiller suggesting that Elbow might be the Band That All Spillers Like Or At Least No One In These Parts Actively Dislikes. Whether Elbow represent this much sought after Eldorado (or should I say Elbow-dorado?) [No. Ed.] (‘Spilldorado?) [Still, no. Ed.] or not, it was perhaps significant that there wasn’t a serious buke to be heard – perhaps (in time-honoured ‘Spill fashion) Those About To Buke kept their collective heads below the parapet. My hope is that they will now take the time to listen to this playlist and perhaps (like everyone’s favourite Deadhead) re-examine their Elbow-related feelings. Of course, this list may have the opposite effect and convince Chris and others who hoped to be converted that Elbow are not for them after all.
A few notes on my selection. I decided to allow each ‘Spiller just one nomination. I wanted to include one collaboration and one cover and after much deliberation I went for Murder of Birds with Jesca Hoop and Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel) to represent these two categories. I loved the Elbow version of Independent Woman (which I hadn’t heard before – thanks shoey!) but didn’t feel that it was quite in keeping with the mood of the rest of the selection. I also wanted to reflect one regularly-mentioned feature of Elbow – namely, their remarkable live performances: I have therefore included a couple of these in the list at the expense of the studio versions.
I think it’s fair to say that Elbow have long been on the ‘Spill radar and an overview such as this is arguably well over due. I thank everyone for their contributions, hope that the final list meets their expectations (which of course are ‘great’) and, with a promise to spend more time on the ‘Spill in 2012, wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.
(Thanks to maki for making the playlist work and to tfd for offering to do the same.)
Track listing:
From: Asleep In The Back
01. Powder Blue – fredflinstone
02. Newborn (live in Amsterdam) – garethim
03. Scattered Black And Whites – DarceysDad
From: Cast of Thousands
04. Fugitive Motel (live on Jools Holland) – exodus
05. Grace Under Pressure – barbryn
From: Leaders of the Free World
06. Station Approach – saneshane
07. Forget Myself – blimpy
08. The Everthere – shoegazer
09. Great Expectations – ToffeeBoy
10. Murder Of Birds (Jesca Hoop) – barbryn
From: The Seldom Seen Kid
11. An Audience With The Pope – tincanman
12. The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver (live at the Mercury Prize awards) – glasshalfempty
13. Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel) – alimunday
From: Build A Rocket Boys
14. The Birds – ShivSidecar
15. Lippy Kids – bishbosh
Hi all. Thanks for the linky, Toffee.
Huh? Where’s me ugly mug? I’ve gone all kaleidoscopic/cubist/blue-period!
I’m deffo logged in.
Thanks everyone – nothing makes me feel quite as stupid as my inability to upload playlists on the ‘Spill. I’m genuinely an intelligent technically gifted individual…
Thanks for this, Toffee. Looking very forward to having a listen over the next few days.
I’m still several hours behind in listening to all the other great music posted recently (I’ve not even quite finished the ‘Threes’ yet!) but I will definitely give these a listen. Thanks to all for taking the time and care to select and assemble yet another Festive(-ish) playlist.
What a lovely, funny, clever write-up! Bit like the band themselves then… Nice one, TB!
Ms. Sackcloth & Ashes says: Despite the posts alluded to above, I’m only familiar with ‘Starlings’ (nominated on RR in a rare week when my MP3 player was actually prepared to load new tunes), a situation I’ve been meaning to rectify for aaaages. Thanks for a kick in the right direction, TB & Team!
looking forward to listening to this. I’m in the Chris camp, in that i’ve never been convinced by Elbow, but i’m willing to have my mind changed….
I’ve just listened to the first four tracks. I’ve not taken in any words, really. I have to be engaged by the music first.
Powder Blue and Newborn I thought were quite remarkable. Musically interesting and quite beguiling. Original. I’ll definitiely listen to these again.
Scattered Black And Whites and Fugitive Motel, I was less enamoured of. I probably saw them on Jools doing Fugitive Motel. Both tracks fall foul of (yet!) another of my little bugbears (does saying ‘little’ make them sound cute?): the endlessly repeated rhythm. I’ll listen again to see if the words help me be less aware of it.
Ha! There it is again, Chris, that difference between you and I.
I find SB&Ws repeated rhythm hypnotically alluring, as did the then babe-in-arms DsSis. She’s grown out of it (at aged 10, she now finds the song “boring”), but I haven’t: not sure what that says about either of us. And the lyrics – when you do pay them some attention – were an early indicator, imo, that Mr Garvey had a poet’s control of language.
Nonetheless, I’m encouraged by your response to Powder Blue & Newborn.
Time for bed.
Next four:
Grace Under Pressure started out well. I liked the juxtaposition of the voices and drums. But then it went all anthemic on me. I’m not well-disposed to anthems.
Station Approach has a lovely slow build and the repetition worked well but the drums were too heavy at the end. A very low version of the blooping noise would have been better.
Forget Myself has a similar drum problem, imho. There’s such a lot of colour in the rest of the music, it’s a pity the drums are so drab.
The Everthere, however, is just gorgeous. The broken banjo solo is perfect.
Now, where was I? Ah, yes…
Great Expectations is another lovely floaty one.
Murder Of Birds could easily not be Elbow at all. I love the guitar and time signature swaps. And the ending.
An Audience With The Pope’s slinky groove is good. Reminds me of the Black Books theme: was that Elbow too?
The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver has an effective power, and is certainly an impressive live performance, but didn’t quite grab me.
Mercy Street sounds like a Peter Gabriel song but, I presume, he’s just singing one of their compositions. I would have liked it to do something other than just carry on.
The Birds has a nice minor-to-major thing going on. And on and on, unfortunately.
Lippy Kids’ repetitive organ, piano and guitar figures built up a good base that I didn’t find annoying. And it didn’t fulfil its promise to go anthemic, which was good. But, again, I’m not sure where it did go.
Mercy Street is a Peter Gabriel song, by the way…
Does this mean we can now tell the difference between our ass & our elbow.
Where is my coat?
Thanks Toffeboy, look forward to listening at the weekend.
Just listened to the first 5 tracks. Lovely stuff. Faves so far – could Newborn be any more gorgeous? Loved Scattered Black and White too.
Thanks for doing this Toffeeboy, this is such a well put together post. But….
……the first attempt to listen with Mrs Panther in the room didn’t make it past the first song before it got turned off, I think the falsetto offended her !……..and this is a woman, lest we forget, who sits through MY collection !!
Tried again later doing the washing up by myself and on headphones after. I have to say that it just didn’t grab me at all, ….I didn’t actively detest it or anything like that, but I definitely didn’t like it either! Although there were some nice songs there.
What can I say?! I tried ! And I deeply appreciate the effort of putting it together and the excellent write up. Thanks again !
I think we may experience something similar when it comes to Elbow, panth. Despite the evident craft (and the lyrical excellence), I often find something a little nondescript about their tunes. All too easy to zone out of – unless they’re in anthemic mode.
Just from listening to the first 5, there does seem to be a saminess to them. This is where i confess being confused. I seem to remember Blackshadow and maybe a few others posting Elbow songs on the mothership that were proper rockers, and now i’m wondering if i may have gotten that confused with another band.
So who’s next in this series then? I would quite like someone to explain to me the appeal of Beck (who seems to be a critical untouchable, but who has mostly – with the exception of the Sea Change album – left me cold).
I think for a series like this to work, the artist / band has to have a decent sized body of work, and in a range of styles.
One i’d like to see – not because i don’t get them but because they have such a massive catalog that’s mostly unknown to me – XTC. Also Pulp, Blur, even Radiohead.
XTC is a great idea. I’ve always thought I should know more of their oeuvre (only really knowing – and liking – Making Plans For Nigel, Senses Working Overtime and Love On A Farmboy’s Wages). Pulp, Blur and Radiohead I am reasonably familiar with, but that’s probably because they all hit bigger here than Stateside. But all are worth (re)investigating.
OK, so now ‘everyone’s favourite Deadhead’ (how sweet!) has re-examinined his Elbow-related feelings and, on the basis of these tracks, is much more impressed than he was.
I suspect my views were formed primarily from seeing them on Jools, where they seemed to play more anthemic songs with suspended fourths and sweeping strings, whereas they have quite a musical range. With a voice like Garvey’s I can see how the anthems are effective but I much prefer the more complex, changeable stuff.
Their musicality is impressive, as is their abilty to deliver live; maybe a change of drummer would make them even better.
Whether or not this is going to make me buy one of their albums, I don’t know. Is ‘Asleep In The Back’ more like Powder Blue or Scattered Black And Whites?
Thanks again, TB, for putting the effort in. It was definitely worthwhile.
Chris, if you can wait a couple of days, I’ll drop AitB when I get home: you can judge for yourself. Happy New Year to all ‘Spillers whose mobile numbers I haven’t got.
Thanks for the offer, DsD, but it’s on Spotify so I’ll give it a listen there. The first track seems more like Scattered Black And Whites….
And please accept my very best wishes for 2012. I hope your work situation is much less stressful.
Thanks to you Chris for taking the time to listen and to comment in such detail.
I found the exercise useful myself and (again, without wanting to analyse these things to death) have a better understanding of what it is that I like about Elbow.
One very important area (important to me anyway) that several people mentioned was Guy Garvey’s skills as a lyricist and I think that he’s one of those relatively rare characters in popular music: namely, a chronicler of our times. There’s a good list to be drawn up incuding (but by no means exclusively) Ray Davies (think Dead End Street), Billy Bragg (Greetings To The New Brunette), Jarvis Cocker (Sorted For Es and Wizz) and Alex Turner (Riot Van) who have in common that ability to capture a mood which will tell future generations more about our life and times than a cold text book ever could. Have a close listen to Powder Blue (I’m proud to be the one you hold, when the shakes begin), Great Expectations (The Stockport Supporter’s Club kindly supplied us a choir) and Lippy Kids (Walking on walls, stealing booze and hour long hungry kisses, And nobody knew me at home anymore) to name but three and you’ll see what I mean…
Thanks to everyone for playing. I look forward to the next overSPILL…
Any takers?
Lots of great stuff here, and I think I may have to take the step from picker-up-of-occasional-Elbow-songs-by-means-legal-and-otherwise to purchaser-of-Elbow-albums.
@DarceysDad – Matilda seemed particularly taken with “Scatted Black and Whites”.
Thanks for putting this together ToffeeBoy, and please do spend more time here in 2012. Maybe you could set yourself another 12 tasks…
I’d feel qualified to curate overSPILLs on Blur, Belle and Sebastian, Saint Etienne, Tindersticks, Luke Haines, the Go-Betweens and Rufus Wainwright, if anyone’s interested in any of those (although I don’t if I could be as admirably democratic as ToffeeBoy here – and this is dependent on me actually having some spare time in the next year or so). Ones I’d like to hear: Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Led Zep (and loads more that I’ll think of as soon as I’ve posted this).
I’d vote for B&S because I know they are supposed to be brilliant etc but they’ve left me cold.
Belle and Sebastian and the Beck suggestions sound like a good ideas – from a personal viewpoint, like.. oh, and XTC who I know nothing about.
I will get around to:
Björk, Throwing Muses and The Mountain Goats
During the year.