The Seldom seen kid (released in early 2008) elevated Elbow from little known Bury band to Mercury Winning - stadium filling stars. Build a rocket boys! has been several years in the making and I was fortunate enough to have my copy drop through my letterbox several days before release so have managed several listens already. I have to say at this point that It takes me several listens to really appreciate Elbow songs and this album has seen no change. Songs such as Lippy kids have been widely promoted and this track is likely to be more of the band that most people know and love. However further listens show that Elbow know this terrain well, there are slow building songs here that are layered and complex and will take repeated listens to enjoy. The subjects of youth, love, loss and death are all here and Guy Garvey does a wonderful job of injecting so much emotion into his songs with what appears to be such ease. Nowhere else in the album is this so true than in The River a stripped back song of raw emotion that is simply beautiful. There is no change in direction here from Elbow, something that i think they should be highly commended for, they do here what they did so well on the TSSK. An album that propelled them to such a wider audience that there must have been both persuasion and temptation for them to write anthemic stadium songs - the closest that BARB! has is Neat little rows.
This album looks set to follow in the footsteps of TSSK with real pride and that in itself is a real achievement for Elbow to be proud of - and one that we will be enjoying for quite some time to come.