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Elbow
Leaders of the Free World
(V2)
First Appeared in The Music Box, August 2006, Volume 13, #8
Written by John Metzger
Perhaps the biggest criticism that not only has dogged Elbow since its debut
but also has kept it from reaching a bigger audience in America is that its
melodic inclinations frequently have been undercut by its experimental
tendencies. To that end, the group’s latest endeavor Leaders of the Free
World is a fully confident attempt to meet head-on the charges that have
been leveled against it. It would be easy to say that, in crafting the affair,
the band essentially traded Radiohead’s intrigue for Coldplay’s mass appeal, but
such a statement also would be too simplistic to ring true. After all, being
overwrought with emotion can cheapen a tune just as much as an overabundance of
technical tinkering can make a song sound sterile. Wisely, on Leaders of the
Free World, Elbow opted to split the difference, and for the most part, it
strived for and achieved a more accessible balance between its disparate
agendas.
Although it continues to allow its artsy eccentricities to shape the mood of
its material, Elbow now has provided them with a more euphonious set of
structures upon which to cling. As a result, the peculiarities that initially
might have sounded awkward, odd, or just plain cold on its prior efforts now
develop so naturally that they are, at first, barely noticeable. In effect, the
album just feels warmer, and, only upon closer examination does one discover
that tucked inside Station Approach is an hypnotic, homesick chant or
that many other songs, such as Forget Myself or the title track, are
anchored by clattering, kitchen-sink-style percussion or imbued with a myriad of
strange keyboard effects.
As all of its symphonic textures collide, Elbow’s inspirations bubble more
profoundly to the surface. In the past, the band has had a tendency to try to
obscure the striking similarities between the voices of front man Guy Garvey and
Genesis’ Peter Gabriel, but on Leaders of the Free World, it plays them
to the hilt. Elsewhere, the title track (with its aqueous keyboards, blend of
acoustic and electric guitar, and choir-like backing vocals) is drawn almost
completely from late ’70s-era Moody Blues, while the quaint folk of The
Everthere slips comfortably within the post-Syd Barrett, pre-Dark Side of
the Moon musings of Pink Floyd, though it also is briefly graced with the
wispy atmospherics of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Aesthetically, plenty of gloom remains embedded within the dynamics of
Elbow’s work — the grey skies of its home in Manchester, England seemingly are
quite difficult to shake — but rather than the claustrophobic desperation of its
predecessors, Leaders of the Free World exudes a gentle, bittersweet
sorrow that is lined with just the right amount of romantic optimism. Mixed in
amongst the murderous rage that is directed at a girlfriend’s ex on Mexican
Standoff and the frustrations over the state of the world that are expressed
on the title track are several odes to lasting love, such as Great
Expectations and The Everthere. Admittedly, there is a slight decline
in quality during Leader of the Free World’s latter half, though this is
due more to the band’s recycling of its ideas than it is to a fault with its
actual execution of them. In the end, Leaders of the Free World
undeniably is a bold step forward for Elbow, one that finds the group turning
its ambitions into a luxuriously lovely outgrowth of its own underappreciated Cast of Thousands. 
Leaders of the Free World is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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