Dead in the boot

You have to be brave and certain of your audience to release an album of  B-sides, and all the numbers that didn't  make the previous ones, or Misses as Joni Mitchell called them in her 'Hits and Misses' albums, giving them a second firing. Elbow have already had trouble explaining the title to American audiences, who don't have boots in cars (trunks?) so don't see the joke that it follows on from their debut, 'Asleep in the Back'.

 At first I thought that Elbow were possibly just slightly scraping the barrel but these songs have now worked their way into the space between my bones and flesh, hardly surprising for a band who recorded 'The Bones of You' on their best known Mercury prize winning The Seldom Seen Kid'. Some tracks are  subtle, and filmic, which has made the album my ideal companion for long journeys on blustery autumn morning drives.

I've loved Elbow since I was first aware of them through hearing 'Newborn', from the first album, didn't know who it was by though, and it took a while after that to realise who they were.  I love that their songs are not easy to decipher, yet are about emotions  and day to day stuff we all encounter.

Guy Garvey's lyrics are the modern  answer to the 'Seven Ages of Men', he writes about friendship, growing on,  love and loss. He somehow gets away with incredibly innocent saccharine-sweet words like 'Does he kiss your eyes', probably because you know the next track will be earthy and full of male camaraderie.

The beautiful 'Lullaby'  ('Rest  Head  Strong  Brother') is a track Eric Whitacre would be proud of, only released on Seldom Seen Kid in Europe, perhaps a later addition or perhaps because they thought it wouldn't suit British rock fans.  'Lay down your cross' seems a melancholy song about an ageing relationship: 'Love let me love,   let me love her again.'   'The Long War Shuffle' has Richard Jupp doing a brilliant pub singer type drum rhythm and Guy complains 'I'm not getting any younger, and I know you feel the same'. 

The fall out from a relationship is explored in 'Love Blown Down' which throbs with a morse code pulse,  which somehow reminds me of the soundtrack of the film 'Atonement' which begins with the percussive sound of typing. The track's atmosphere takes hold of your body, gently rearranging it through the numerous key changes. Listening to this album I realise how Craig Potter's piano and keyboards are the spine of many numbers, very often with deceptively simple melodies running along the musical vertebrae. This music speaks of lone individuals, yet the anthemic quality of many of their songs is of bodies, large groups of people.

The band got their name from 'The Singing Detective', where Philip Marlowe says that 'elbow' is the most sensuous word in the English language, not because of what it means but how it looks, and feels to say it. Garvey follows in Dennis Potter's footsteps by taking the humdrum and making something ethereal, moving, but universal.

It's interesting to ponder over why each track was excluded from the main album lists, and also which ones will feature in their current tour. It'll be the second time I've seen them and there are numbers on 'Dead in the Boot' I hope will be included, but we'll see....