Glory. It took until last year's 'The Seldom Seen Kid' for Elbow to finally get a bit of public recognition. 'Asleep In The Back' was released seven years earlier than this, and frankly, it should have given them the respect they have now. The band had already existed, in some form, for 11 years before the release of their debut album, and they'd already been forced to scrap one record due to label negotiations. As a result of this, 'Asleep In The Back' is incredibly well constructed.'Any Day Now' starts the album on a dark and claustrophobic note, but it's a perfect introduction to the album, and the band. It shows all the instrumental ingredients that Elbow love to use, and it showcases Guy Harvey's extraordinary voice - the man can sing melancholy like no-one else. Even more upbeat numbers like 'Red', the second track, sound wounded, but in the most beautiful way. Other highlights to the album include the dense and heavy 'Coming Second', the contrasting airy and dreamlike 'Scattered Black And Whites', and the sublime 'Newborn'. Only Elbow would aim for chart success with the line 'I'll be the corpse in your bathtub'. Amazingly, it failed to chart. Newborn starts gently, but ends in a squalling storm of prog-rock. It's worth every second of its seven and a half minutes. Only 'Don't Mix Your Drinks' and 'Presuming Ed' are less convincing, and the styles used in both tracks would be improved upon in subsequent albums. My copy of the album is missing the title track - the 'Asleep In The Back' single was added to later pressings. It's a shame, as it's also a lovely track.
There must be plenty of people out there who have bought an Elbow album in the last couple of years but who don't own this. They should do. I can't recommend it enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment