Pitched at the tempo of a cat taking a nap in the sun,
Elbow's ninth album, 2021's
Flying Dream 1, is the kind of enveloping recording that works best in one long, slow afternoon listen. The album was largely written remotely while the band was isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic and then recorded live at the empty Theatre Royal in Brighton with producer
Craig Potter. The result is a gorgeously rendered production that has the feeling of an intimate concert, bringing the acclaimed group's moonlit chamber pop into vibrant clarity. Once again at the center of
Elbow's warm sound is vocalist and songwriter
Guy Garvey, whose Mancunian tenor lilt and knack for crafting deeply literate and poetic songs draws you ever deeper into the band's nuanced jazz- and classical-influenced arrangements. Bandmates and brothers
Mark and
Craig Potter add deft layers of piano and guitar, while bassist
Pete Turner grounds the band's sound with his deeply resonant acoustic upright basslines. Also on board are a handful of guest musicians, including drummer
Alex Reeves and clarinetist/saxophonist
Sarah Field, as well as backing vocalists
Jesca Hoop,
Wilson Atie, and
Adeleye Omotayo, and
London Contemporary Voices member
Marit Rokeberg, all of whom add their own richly attenuated contributions to
Elbow's songs. There's a sense on
Flying Dream 1 that
Elbow are thinking back on their past, their youth, and people they've lost, including
Garvey's mother-in-law, famed actress
Diana Rigg, who died in 2020. It's a sound perhaps best expressed on the symbolic and deeply metaphorical "Is It a Bird?," in which
Garvey imagines the death of a loved one as something transformative. He sings, "Is it a bird?/Is it a plane?/Or is it a jettisoned beautiful warrior's soul/Blazing 'cross the sky on its way back home?" It might take some time for
Flying Dream 1 to fully grab you, but when it does, the album's measured, artful introspection is hard to shake. ~ Matt Collar
