A few more details on the new album

Taken from a brief article in this month's Q magazine. (worth a look, some nice piccies.)
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In the lounge room at Blueprint Studios, the rented facility deep in Salford's industrial Wastelands where Elbow are recording their fifth album, the band are laughing as they recall the track they wrote after winning 2008's Mercury Music Prize, a song singer Guy Garvey describes as “uselessly happy, like something from a children's album”.

It's the downside of success. In the two years since The Seldom Seen Kid, the enduring Bury quintet won more than the Mercury and a Brit Award: they won the nation's hearts. The terminal outsiders were underdogs no more, and loving it. Everything was, and is tickety boo. But when heartbreaking melancholia is your currency, success and contentment can be a problem.
“I realised I’d have to look elsewhere for lyrics because I'm very happy.” says Garvey. “I can't sincerely write about where I'm at because I'm doing OK. It wouldn't work: [sings] I've been in a bath showroom/ For 10 and a half days... I mean who wants to hear a song about tiling?”

The solution came in January 2010 on the Isle of Mull, where the band seconded themselves to write new material and review the recordings they made on the road. Unlike similar sojourns in the past they found they were missing family life and couldn’t settle in (bassist Pete Turner became a father less than a month before, and Garvey jokes that he is “the only jaffa in the band at the minute”). In essence, they realized they've grown up, and the thought set Garvey on a nostalgic, reflective course.
Taking its lyrics from a poem Garvey wrote about his first love, Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl set the agenda both thematically and musically. It's a spare revision of the Elbow sound, stripping their lush widescreen sonics back to an almost Brian Eno-esque minimalism – just Garvey's voice, a Rhodes keyboard and wisps of the other players. “I think our records have always had light and shade to degree, this one more so than the others” says Garvey.

Back on the mainland, following an intensive Week in the Cheshire studio owned by long time friends Doves, the band settled in at Blueprint. When Garvey found himself struggling with the lyrics, he twice travelled down to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire, sharing thoughts with Gabriel himself and communicating with the band via video calls. Sometimes they would place the laptop on top of the piano and play the latest versions of songs to a virtual Garvey.

Ideas of friendship, community and teenage years began to colour the 30 odd tracks in consideration. Key song Lippy Kids is written in defence of the British teenager. It's what Garvey describes as “the anti-hoody shit that goes on in the media, the thought that if you hang around on a street comer you're a criminal.”

Sonically, a track titled The Birds is one of the bigger moments. A grand, experimental piece, it bridges the gap between the ragged blues of The Seldom Seen Kid’s Grounds For Divorce and the band's trademark transcendent moments. Interestingly, there's not yet a moment as radio-friendly (or as apt to soundtrack TV sports montages) as the last album's One Day Like This. “We could write deliberate radio hits until the cows come home, but l think you can hear it really obviously when a band has done that” says Garvey.

The band are working to polish off the album before the end of the year and are planning to invite a number of guest vocalists to the studio, though at this point they'll only reveal that the roll call includes some young singers and "an esteemed English actor".

"There's less pressure this time somehow“ says Garvey about the as-yet-untitled album, slated for release next spring. “We know everybody's going to hear it. People are going to know it's there. It's the first album we've made without the comedy anvil hanging over our heads.”

Good.
Brian Eno-esque minimalism???

I am really happy to read this.
It seems like they stuck to their old beliefs.
Can't wait to hear it now!

This article has made me so excited for the new album! ooooh! And when you read "Esteemed actor" who do you think? I went straight for Iain McKellan!

Carlyle?

Nice one Mr K for that, think I'll buy a copy.

As Jones said, they've stuck to their beliefs by the sound of it - it's bound to be brilliant......as long as that prick from X Factor, Wagner aint on it.

particularly encouraged by the reference to simply writing radio hits.
we need the 'edge' on their material and thats what makes them so great

Sounds very interesting

ChrissyBoy wrote:

particularly encouraged by the reference to simply writing radio hits.
we need the 'edge' on their material and thats what makes them so great

they always said they where radiohead for girls, hope they follow the radiohead ethos and write for themselves when they had to follow up Ok Computer... almost relieved now, am gonna keep 'my' band... :-)

I'm not afraid of one radio hit in a record.

Sarah wrote:

This article has made me so excited for the new album! ooooh! And when you read "Esteemed actor" who do you think? I went straight for Iain McKellan!

My first thought would be Christopher Eccleston. Friend and supporter of I Am Kloot who, as we are well aware, have close connections with Elbow.

Do you expect many strings like on TSSK?

Dano wrote:

Do you expect many strings like on TSSK?

Having read this in the above article

Quote :

Taking its lyrics from a poem Garvey wrote about his first love, Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl set the agenda both thematically and musically. It's a spare revision of the Elbow sound, stripping their lush widescreen sonics back to an almost Brian Eno-esque minimalism – just Garvey's voice, a Rhodes keyboard and wisps of the other players.

I'd say 'not many'.

Fab write-up, cheers Mr K for posting.

So, we can all breathe a sign of relief that they've not gone off in a completely new direction... including Les Dawson piano recitals as dreamt up by MBV!

Hotblack wrote:

Dano wrote:

Do you expect many strings like on TSSK?

Having read this in the above article

Quote :

Taking its lyrics from a poem Garvey wrote about his first love, Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl set the agenda both thematically and musically. It's a spare revision of the Elbow sound, stripping their lush widescreen sonics back to an almost Brian Eno-esque minimalism – just Garvey's voice, a Rhodes keyboard and wisps of the other players.

I'd say 'not many'.

You are right but if i remember well the Guy's description i don't think that is the trend for the whole album.

mrswoman wrote:

Fab write-up, cheers Mr K for posting.

So, we can all breathe a sign of relief that they've not gone off in a completely new direction... including Les Dawson piano recitals as dreamt up by MBV!

I tell thee MrsW, you had to be there, it's really hard to play piano like Les, apparently - Garve made it look simple !

Dano wrote:

Hotblack wrote:

Dano wrote:

Do you expect many strings like on TSSK?

Having read this in the above article

Quote :

Taking its lyrics from a poem Garvey wrote about his first love, Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl set the agenda both thematically and musically. It's a spare revision of the Elbow sound, stripping their lush widescreen sonics back to an almost Brian Eno-esque minimalism – just Garvey's voice, a Rhodes keyboard and wisps of the other players.

I'd say 'not many'.

You are right but if i remember well the Guy's description i don't think that is the trend for the whole album.

the words 'set the agenda both thematically and musically. It's a spare revision of the Elbow sound...'

and this quoted paragraph below from the same article make me think that it is the trend.

Quote :

Sonically, a track titled The Birds is one of the bigger moments. A grand, experimental piece, it bridges the gap between the ragged blues of The Seldom Seen Kid’s Grounds For Divorce and the band's trademark transcendent moments. Interestingly, there's not yet a moment as radio-friendly (or as apt to soundtrack TV sports montages) as the last album's One Day Like This. “We could write deliberate radio hits until the cows come home, but l think you can hear it really obviously when a band has done that” says Garvey.

I need more news, interviews, details, everything. CAN'T WAIT.

"We could write deliberate radio hits until the cows come home, but l think you can hear it really obviously when a band has done that" - I think we all know this is our band's attitude, and it's one of the reasons we love 'em.

No offence but I hope JIARG & Lippy Kids aren't the final titles of those tracks! Reminds me of a similar piece 5 years ago telling us about a song called "Buddah With Mace" and thinking WTF

Well, I thought the only reason they changed the title of "Forget Myself" from "Buddah With Mace" was because the record company refused to back it as the title might offend Budhhists, despite Guy's protests that offending Budhhists was impossible

Eag wrote:

"We could write deliberate radio hits until the cows come home, but l think you can hear it really obviously when a band has done that" - I think we all know this is our band's attitude, and it's one of the reasons we love 'em.

*cough*OneDayLikeThis*cough*

wonder when we will get a first play of a track....
surely sometime soon ? ..... please
.....pretty please
.....pretty please with a cherry on top ?

Christmas gift?!

...for undyingly loyal forum members? Ultraplease?

Seriously...a little, teeny tiny morsel to whet our appetites (like they need whetting!) would be divine in the extreme. I'm so, SO excited to hear any of the new tracks, it's just KILLING me!