Music According to Benedict N°3 – Elbow
“We had the drive and the time on our hands, one little room and the biggest of plans,
the days were shaping up frosty and bright – perfect weather to fly, perfect weather to fly.”
Weather To Fly is the song that sums up Elbow for me. Its hypnotic tone and lulling rhythms, overlapped with Guy Garvey’s gorgeous, autobiographical poetry, wraps up their career in a nutshell. Formed in Manchester in the 1990s, they hovered underneath the radar of widespread commerical success until the release of the album which contains this wonderful song.
The Seldom Seen Kid, released in 2008, is an 11-track masterpiece that won the Mercury Music Prize and brought their gorgeous sound to the masses, through the anthemic hit One Day Like This. Those who love that song, including Benedict, who named it on a playlist of favourite songs in his Reddit AMA, had their ears opened to a whole world of incredible songs. Mirrorball is a sure-fire candidate as a wedding first dance song; The Loneliness of A Tower Crane Driver, is atmospheric; Grounds for Divorce is a real crowd-pleaser.
Before this album, they had released three studio albums, Asleep at the Back, featuring their first ever single, Red; A Cast of Thousands, which contains my other favourite, Fugitive Motel; and Leaders of the Free World, which has Mexican Standoff as its stand-out track.
Since hitting the big time, the band has stayed wonderfully true to their unique sound, with Build A Rocket Boys! scoring more chart success with Lippy Kids and Open Arms. Their latest album, The Take Off and Landing of Everything, is just released and looks set to continue that trend, with New York Morning an instant anthem.
As a studio band, Elbow are a wonderful diversion from the norm. But it is their live performances which really showcases their star quality.
Enjoy this, Elbow performing with the BBC orchestra, their entire album The Seldom Seen Kid.
http://youtu.be/sd8cnPUMPF0
ETA: At the recent OzComicCon panel in Sydney, Benedict proclaimed his love and admiration for the band, citing My Sad Captains as one of his favourite tracks of the moment.
‘And if it’s all we only pass this way but once – What a perfect waste of time’. That’s a pretty beautiful motto for life really, isnt’ it? Elbow. Lots of Elbow.”
So here, for your listening pleasure, is another live performance, this time of My Sad Captains
3 comments to “Music According to Benedict N°3 – Elbow”
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This is lovely! 😀
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