NME Album Review... 6 out of 10...

"The affable northerners play it too safe on their sixth album"

http://www.nme.com/reviews/elbow/15130

I'm too blinded to be as objective as Emily Mackay, but i think there are some truths in that she says, especially about "stretching out their too-little-explored nasty, heavier side."

I think the Telegraph review is more on the money:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/10680955/Elbow-The-Take-Off-and-Landing-ofEverything-review.html

Well I don't usually take NME's reviews very seriously, I mean I just can't forget the pathetic, nasty review (amongst many others) of the last Fleet Foxes album just because I think the lead singer might have said a bad word about the mag, but they have usually been very kind to Elbow (correct me if I'm wrong but didn't they give every album before BARB 9/10?). Though on this occasion, I think they're wrong, I could understand if they had said 'too safe' about BARB, but personally I wouldn't say this is a 'safe' record at all, at least not compared to BARB.

I think they make some valid points but there is so much they are ignoring too- it's a much denser album than the very minimalistic BARB and while, yes, it is a bit cuddly at times, but I think this is where Elbow stand out anyway. They have an extremely high emotional intelligence and zoom in on emotive specificity where the likes of Coldplay lazily take a Google Earth snapshot of the human condition.

I would agree that on BARB they teetered on Hovis-ad schmaltz but I can't see any of that here. It's a much meatier, more varied collection of songs that doesn't sag in the middle like BARB and each and every song sounds different. What about that glorious title song too? Very Any Day Now, very proggy and the entire album harks back to their earlier sound.

I think My Sad Captains, as gorgeous as it is, is the closest we get to the "cuddly" or "safe" sentimentality NME seems to be lamenting. I am not bothered though because, yes, I love the edgier, darker side to Elbow, and I think we have it here in Charge, Fly Boy Blue, the title song and the dark, ominous closer The Blanket of Night; what I feel they excel in is interesting, intelligent music and mindblowing lyrics of which I cannot find anywhere else in modern music. Give me this over the lazily vague how/now/brown/cow lyricism of Chris Martin et. al. (I like Martin, but to his own admission, he cannot write lyrics for toffee!). Moreover, I find Coldplay are one of those bands who face switched on the "money tap" as Garvey calls it, too often. I actually think Ghost Stories may be a surprisingly non-commercial affair (though the lyrics will still be awful! Haha!).

TTOALOE is not a perfect album; I still prefer albums 3 & 4) but it's up there with their debut and is better than Cast and BARB as a whole IMO.

Hmm... I think a good indicator of safe would be listening to the b-sides, but unfortunately there has yet to be one. When barb! released, it was clear that they had a darker side to explore that they chose not to. With this album I think they've managed to hop around the landscape in terms of mood and lyrics, so I wouldn't call it cozy in a negative sense. In this case, it's a reviewer who had expectations they probably weren't aiming for with this album, which isn't a huge slight when it's added in with the other reviews.

For every Elbow fan, there's a sound or an album that scratches a different itch. There's always going to be differing opinions as we've had different entrances into their music career. With this album, it shows a positive future ahead.

I can't stand NME writers. So arrogant and smug and annoying and self-assured.

Sorry, NME, forgot the only credible album ever was the whiny High Flying Birds.

I refuse to take seriously any review that uses the simile, "a sonic bollock hair."