We’re not overtly testy, but
probably a little disappointed. It is, after all, our mistake, we think. You see
we’d presumed, based on the fact that we thought we’d seen it listed, that Manchester’s
raiders of the lost art of genre splicing, The Longcut, were opening up
for Doves on the second leg of this 24 hour lager-sponsored Northern branding
shindig. On closer examination of the ticket before entrance we find it is actually
drippy Manc meloncholists Longview. They look and sound as interesting
as the rain. This is not very good. The Longcut, it turns out, were opening up
for I Am Kloot at 7.30am, a show we didn’t manage to obtain entry to, probably
just as well considering all the senses required for attending and consuming a
gig generally aren’t available to Crud until at least 10am of a weekend. Ho hum.
Doves, in the compact grandeur of Manchester’s Ritz at the slightly
more sensible hour of 1pm, make a lot of sense. Their live shows are generally
grittier and more euphoric than you rightly expect and thrive in the vaster dimensions
that they’ve become accustomed to. Up close though the details seem to have a
more immediate, raw impact. They have that perfect balance between universal themes
and personal perspective, something that Coldplay are arguably fluffing a little
right now by concentrating almost solely on the universal, and here in these confines
the personal is underlined brilliantly. “I think all of us joined bands to avoid
doing anything at all at this time of day”, muses Jimi, “but this is alright”.
It’s his birthday, but he plays it down. He introduces us to his Nanna Betty who
looks slightly overwhelmed but waves like the Queen from the balcony. It’s all
very friendly indeed. But why settle for friendly when you can have intimate,
with sauce on top. The real reason we hiked up from London into the eye of an
omnipresent lager promotion was the low key return of this city’s most magnificent
musical export from the last 10 years. Elbow are to return officially in
August with a single, followed in September by the release of their third album
‘Leaders Of The Free World’ (though Guy inaccurately announces the title today
as ‘The Stops’), and this afternoon invite a couple of hundred people into Blueprint
Studios and the self same loft space where they wrote and recorded the whole album.
“Well, isn’t this nice,” says the nicest man in indie. And it is. The set
opener and new tune, ‘Station Approach’, once Guy’s ascertained the chord sequence
(“G/C/G?”), sweeps forward initially in slow motion, reintroducing the Elbow already
held dear. It’s got those careful baby-steps towards awe that ‘Ribcage’ had, the
repetitive gunning momentum of ‘Fallen Angel’ and the random dizzy orbit of ‘Coming
Second’, tethered down by some beautiful lyrical lines and a hypnotizing looping
vocal refrain getting denser by the minute. It’s a show of strength if ever they
needed one. Their career so far, once out of their early dire straights
anyway, has been characterized by matter of fact progressions, unfussy ambitions
realised, good solid Northern craftsmanship, all sailing an ingeniously charted
course. Which is exactly what they oblige us with as they forge forward today
too. Further album teasers ‘Buddha With Mace’ and ‘Leaders Of The Free World’
are both big confident pop songs refusing to falter or compromise as the seconds
tick by with controlled adrenalin, evoking in parts Talk Talk, Peter Gabriel and
latterly Manchester-kin I Am Kloot covering the Velvet Underground in chunky glam
heels. There are humid triple-track vocals and sneaky melodies. There is then
‘Very Best Day’, seemingly this album’s teary-eyed moment, its ‘Powder Blue’ or
‘Fugitive Motel’, where at its climax Guy unleashes a torrent of emotion and rides
the gentle, forceful waves beneath him with expert compassion. There is
a strong showing from ‘Asleep In The Back’, and a smattering from ‘Cast Of Thousands’,
enough to remind us that they really have a near-peerless back catalogue full
of drama, sweetness and spite. But even so, even including a vast ‘Newborn’, a
sturdy ‘Any Day Now’, a weightless ‘Switching Off’, the new tracks stand tall
as memorable peaks, new hooks lodged firmly amidst the heartening familiarity.
These new songs might perhaps leave less to chance, heading up up up, no messing,
but they certainly haven’t neglected the perspective or the depth that made them
what they are. They might wear an unfussy overcoat, but the seams still appear
exquisitely stitched. And Crud is disappointed no longer. Relevant sites:
http://www.elbow.co.uk/
James Berry for Crud Magazine 2004©
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|
| 04/05 British Sea Power - Live - Scala, London
04/05 Eels - Live - Royal Festival Hall, London
04/05 Doves, Elbow, Longview - Carling 24 , Manchester
04/05 Joy Zipper, ICA London
04/05 The National - 100 Club, London
04/05 Redjetson / Liberez / Twentysixfeet - Marquee, London
04/05 The Warlocks - Bethnal Green Working Men's Club
12/04 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - ULU, London
12/04 Elbow - Live -Brixton Academy, London
12/04 Franz Ferdinand - Live - Alexandra Palace, London
12/04 Morning Runner - Kings College London
12/04 Carling Weekend Reading Festival 2005
12/04 Sigur Rós - Brixton Academy, London
12/04 Crud Top 20 Albums 2005 |  |
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002
January - March 2003
May - August 2003
November 2003
January - March 2004
April - September 2004
October - December 2004
January - March 2005
April - December 2005
January - August 2006
September - December 2006
January - September 2007
October - December 2007
January - May 2008
June-December 2008
| | |
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