Description
elbow release their eighth studio album on 11th October 2019.lsquoGiants of All Sizesrsquo was recorded at Hamburgrsquos Clouds Hill Studio, The Dairy in Brixton, 604 Studios in Vancouver and Blueprint Studios in Salford with additional recording taking place at various band memberrsquos home studios spread across Manchester. As with their previous four studio albums, lsquoGiantsrsquo was produced and mixed by Craig Potter. Guests across the album include Jesca Hoop, The Plumedores and South London newcomer Chilli Chilton.Guy Garvey describes the album as ldquoan angry, old blue lament which finds its salvation in family, friends, the band and new life.rdquo It is a record that lyrically takes in moments of deep personal loss whilst reflecting its times by confronting headon the spectres of injustice and division not just in the UK but across the world. It is a record that could only have been made in the 21st Century.Given such bleak, if ultimately redeemed, subject matter, it is also, perversely, the most relaxed record which elbow have made in some time. On lsquoGiants of All Sizesrsquo, each band member extended their usual process of working on demos alone and followed their vision to its conclusion rather than, as Craig Potter puts it, lsquotaking the edges off things to find compromisersquo. In tandem with this, they returned to playing live in the studio, encouraged to experiment with the banks of analogue equipment at Clouds Hill in Northern Germany, giving songs a looser, more live feel.The result is the most starkly dynamic record from the band in recent times, ldquoSonically unabashedrdquo, as Guy would have it. Whilst album closer lsquoWeightlessrsquo has the gossamer melodies and communal harmonies for which the band have latterly been known, this album echoes earlier elbow work at times whilst also breaking new ground.lsquoWhite Noise White Heatrsquo is motorik, metal machine soul driven by a vocal that is rage incarnate, lsquoDoldrumsrsquo mixes John Carpenter with The Plastic Ono Band to brilliantly disturbing effect and lsquoOn Deronda Roadrsquo hitches stark bass beats and glitches to an adhoc choir. lsquoEmpiresrsquo delivers dark resignation via an insidious melody and lsquoSeven Veilsrsquo continues the subversion by inverting the perception of elbow as a band for lovers into a band for haters, a doublebarrelled fuckyou song par excellence. lsquoThe Delayed 315rsquo marries mariarchi guitars to jazz dynamics, Morricone via Buddy Rich, and lsquoMy Troublersquo is a clockwork, analogue shuffle housing a delicate melody that builds over the course of the song into a fragile monolith to the power of love.Lead track, lsquoDexter amp Sinisterrsquo, released on 10rdquo ahead of the album, encapsulates the whole. A sevenminute musical journey that blends deep bass grooves, sudden keyboard stabs, dislocated piano and guitar runs and soul stylings then abruptly shifts gear, parts the storm clouds and takes wing, flying towards the heat of the sun. It is the soundtrack for these lsquohope free, faith free, charity free daysrsquo, a denial of the divine and a reconciliation, two songs in one song, two emotions for one emotion, human, fragile and brilliant like the album which it opens.
