#16 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Elbow
Flying Dream 1 by Elbow
Here we are at the midway point. I find an odd sense of beauty that #16 on the Bacon Top 31 always appears on the 16th of the month. This tends to be an inflection point in the countdown — from here on, the quality of the music starts to blend together, each album likely the top of someone else’s list.
The new Elbow album is perfect for #16. Elbow is known for their bombast. Intimate, closely held lows are met with full, orchestral crescendos. But not Flying Dream 1. This is a quiet album, not unlike a meditation. It’s 45 minutes of “Lippy Kids” (“Lippy Kids” is the choral backbone of their phenomenal 2011 album Build a Rocket Boys! and the song never breaks a sweat). It’s gorgeous and lush in all the right ways, and never calls attention to yourself.
The album was produced remotely while everyone was in lockdown in 2020, with the band sharing files back and forth, building the structure for each one. When people could once again convene in small, in-person groups, the band took on a residency at Theatre Royal in Brighton to put the final touches on the album. Utilizing the natural resonance of the theater, the resulting sound is wonderfully warm. You can get a good sense of the place in the three videos the band has released for the album. First, in “Six Words” featured above, as well as the videos for the title track and for “The Seldom Seen Kid” (not the title track from their 2008 album, but about the same subject as that album: the late Manchester musician Bryan Glancy).
Elbow have been playing together for over 30 years, and have been producing great music for two-thirds of that time. I didn’t start listening to the band until I acquired their Mercury-prize winning 2008 album The Seldom Seen Kid. Every studio album they’ve produced since then has appeared on the Bacon Top 31, first with Build a Rocket Boys! (#5 in 2011), The Take Off and Landing of Everything (#2 in 2014), Little Fictions (#1 in 2017!), and Giants of All Sizes, came in at #8 in 2019. You could throw the songs from all those albums and Flying Dream 1 into a hopper, pull out any ten songs, and it would hold together as a complete album. Without knowing the albums intimately you wouldn’t be able to tell what year the songs are from.
It’s quite the achievement to have such consistency for so long. With the exception of swapping out drummers in 2016 (Richard Jump out, Alex Reeves in), the same four-piece lineup has remained for all thirty years: Guy Garvey (lead vocals, guitar), Craig Potter (keyboards), Mark Potter (guitar) and Pete Turner (bass). You’d be hard-pressed to find that level of consistency anywhere. Sure, bands survive that long. But to continue to put out record after record of great-sounding, uniquely-their-own music — its unheard of.
If you’re unfamiliar with Elbow, please crawl out from under that rock. Pick up any of Elbow’s last six studio albums, put on some headphones, and let Calgon take you away. Seriously – go do it right now.
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17. Screen Violence by Chvrches
18. Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice
19. Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music
20. Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience
21. These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird
22. Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson
23. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
24. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists
25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications
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Full Album
All albums in their entirety.
Radio Station
A single song selection pulled from each album.