It's becoming a feature of some of the best music from the UK lately to be quite parochial in nature, very much the product of its time and place, and contained within it a unique watermark all to itself. If that has been true in the past in relation to bands like Arctic Monkeys or The Smiths, it's certainly the case with Elbow's sixth album The Take Off and Landing of Everything.
Elbow frontman Guy Garvey has deeply rooted in the northwest England, albeit with the occasional glance across the Atlantic Ocean on songs like 'New York Morning' and 'Fly Boy Blue / Lunette'. The record is peppered with the sort of northern wit one has come to expect from the ever-charming Garvey, though perhaps this collection sees the Mancunian in a more sombre place than we've recently been accustomed. The album title, we understand, references the ups and downs of life and all the associated trials and tribulations as Garvey trundles headlong towards 40 and through the break-up of a long-term relationship.
This isn't some sort of midlife crisis record, though. Far from it. It's more reflective of a band who are no longer in search of that big chart hit that, perhaps, ten years ago they might have been lusting after. The Mercury Prize cooled those jets and nor have they attempted to retread the ground that they navigated on A Seldom Seen Kid, instead Elbow seem a band perfectly content with themselves.
The Take Off and Landing of Everything is a murkier affair than their recent releases. It doesn't necessarily have the radio-friendly, award-winning buzz about it that The Seldom Seen Kid had, nor the celebratory everyman nature of its follow-up Build A Rocket Boys!, but when you hold it up to the light songs like 'Charge' and 'My Sad Captains' shine. This is an album worth getting to know.
