The Take Off And Landing Of Everything (Album) - Elbow

Elbow have become national treasures in recent years, ever since their 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid won the Mercury Prize, they have ascended in the general public eye. Their status was enhanced further when they were called upon to write the BBC theme for the 2012 Olympics. Consequently the release of a new Elbow album feels as though it needs to be treated with a certain degree of reverence. There isn’t really much call for apprehension at this stage, especially since they have already proven that success has not affected the quality of their output.

The opening track is my favourite from the album: ‘This Blue World’ is a stunningly beautiful song that feels almost like an album in-and-of-itself over the course of its seven minute length. I may even go so far as to call it a ‘perfect Elbow song’. The song unfolds slowly, creating a serene, starry landscape of sound for Guy Garvey’s wistful and contemplative lyrics, pondering the significance of every moment leading up to the start of a relationship: “Was the universe in rehearsal for us?” It's sublime!

The electronic underscore that runs throughout ‘Charge’ puts me in mind of the scrolling text introductions of old Sega games. The song has more bite to it than many of the band’s most recent releases, punctuated through the angrier lyrics: “Glory-be these fuckers are ignoring me / We never learn from history”. ‘Fly Boy Blue’ sounds a bit more like something from the pre-Seldom Seen Kid days, with the occasional blasts of electric-guitar and saxophone cacophony before transitioning into ‘Lunette’ which has a float-y quality that is very akin to some of the quieter moments from Leaders Of The Free World (‘The Everthere’ and ‘Great Expectations’ come to mind).

Similarities to older albums continue at the start of ‘Honey Sun’ before the song actually begins, and a brief glimpse into the studio is gleaned. As the group are practicing there is a loud clatter, followed by Guy Garvey very audibly exclaiming “Jesus!” Moments such as these have been less prevalent in recent years, so it’s nice to hear them make a return. ‘Honey Sun’ itself is also rather similar to some of the band’s older work (it wouldn’t sound out of place on Cast Of Thousands alongside songs like ‘Not A Job’ and ‘Buttons and Zips’).

‘New York Morning’ is the most natural choice to be the lead single out of all the songs on this album, as it’s probably the most readily accessible. That doesn’t cheapen its quality though (not at all) as the song has some beautiful sentiments within it about the idea of possibility. This is all captured through the verbatim, thought-process lyrics and the shimmering musical soundscape which builds into a triumphant crescendo-ing refrain.

When the track-listing was released a couple of months ago there was something that particularly stood out about the song title ‘My Sad Captains’ although I couldn’t be quite certain why this was the case. Then I realised that it is lifted from a Shakespeare play, explaining both my liking for the title as well as my lack of familiarity with it beforehand (Anthony & Cleopatra is a play I have yet to work on/see performed). The track has a steady hand-clapped beat to accompany its deliberate pacing, and includes a very moving distant-sounding trumpet fanfare in between the lyrics. The song describes Guy Garvey’s group of drinking friends (the titular ‘Sad Captains’) “with whom [he] choose[s] to lose [his] mind”. It is a very well-crafted song, and another of the albums highlights.

Title track ‘The Take Off And Landing Of Everything’ is a heavily layered song that begins instantly and maintains its lively energy and pace right the way through until it eventually fades away. From out of the silence that is left behind, emerges the ominous sounding album closer ‘The Blanket Of Night’. The verses trudge along through their own murky bass-heavy depths, before the synthesised chorus erupts from within. This shift in tone is expertly handled and the transition from one into the other and then back again is very slick.

The album overall seems to be an amalgamation of the band’s back-catalogue – taking everything that they’ve released up until this point, and expanding upon it. The album has received plenty of positive reviews already – and to be honest, I don’t think that this album was ever going to be bad – but I don’t think it is the band’s best ever. There are a couple of weaker tracks that fall a little short of the high standards that have been set elsewhere – ‘Colour Fields’ feels a little bit by-the-numbers, and ‘Real Life (Angel)’ doesn’t really do much for me at this stage, maybe it will grow on me. That said, the album has more than enough solid tracks to earn its place alongside its predecessors, and both ‘New York Morning’ and ‘This Blue World’ are masterpieces which deserve praise. It’s worth getting the album for these two tracks alone, but The Take Off And Landing Of Everything has more to offer.