An audio banquet from the Bard of Bury
ELBOW: Audio Vertigo (Polydor) Verdict: Good head for heights ★★★★☆
GOSSIP: Real Power (Sony) Verdict: Potent but patchy ★★★☆☆
ELBOW have become a band we can’t help but all love. Since their formation 27 years ago in Bury, Greater Manchester, they have made the heart-warming singalong their stock in trade. Their biggest hit, One Day Like This at some huge events like the closing ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 and it’s been blasted out over PA systems at many more.
The quintet’s no-nonsense approach is evident again on Audio Vertigo, their tenth studio album and the first since they made 2021’s Flying Dream 1 in home studios and a deserted Brighton theatre in lockdown. ‘Hallelujah, buy us a pint!’ sings frontman Guy Garvey on Knife Fight, determined to spread good cheer whatever the circumstances.
But they are happy to take risks, too, and the ‘vertigo’ in the album title is a reflection of a desire to stretch themselves musically. The sounds here are broad and soulful, taking in not just guitars but also electronic rhythms, funky trombones and detours into lounge jazz.
Garvey jokes that this is an album of ‘gnarly, seedy grooves’, but that’s doing it a disservice. There are indeed rough and ready rock numbers, but there’s plenty more besides.
There’s nothing as memorable as One Day Like This, even though that orchestral epic actually took more than three minutes to reach its sweeping, Hey Jude-like climax. Instead, with its varied rhythms expertly fashioned by keyboardist (and producer) Craig Potter and drummer Alex Reeves, Audio Vertigo reveals its melodic strengths stealthily.
On Things I’ve Been Telling Myself For Years — energised by Reeves’s hip-hop-inspired drumming — Garvey looks in the mirror and dismisses any delusions of grandeur by admitting he’s just a ‘Blackpool rock imposter’. His faith in music is strong, though, and he’s bullish about that on Balu, which is a misspelling of The Jungle Book’s sleepy brown bear Baloo. ‘There’s nothing amiss that can’t be fixed by a bottle of fire and a band,’ he sings.
He tackles unexpected topics, too. On Lovers’ Leap, he cheerily raises doubts as to whether any star-crossed couples really did plunge to their deaths from the bridges and cliffs bearing that name — while also suggesting that such sites should have their own gift shops.
Knife Fight, powered by Mark Potter’s bluesy guitar, is an account of a real-life Istanbul street scuffle that ended with both combatants leaving in tandem, bloodied but laughing.
Audio Vertigo ends on a personal note. Garvey is married to Diana Rigg’s actress daughter Rachael Stirling, and closing track From The River offers tenderly sung words of advice to the couple’s six-year-old son, Jack. With this album out today, and
Stirling playing the 18th-century actress Sarah Siddons in The Divine Mrs S, a new play in London, tonight, it promises to be a busy, if rewarding, weekend for the family.
■ AMERICAN band Gossip play to the strengths of singer Beth Ditto on their first album in 12 years. Ditto was likened (by Canadian musician Peaches) to a young Tina Turner when the Arkansas trio broke through with their barnstorming 2006 single Standing In The Way Of Control — and her emotional, soul-tinged voice is the key ingredient on Real Power.
Having split up in 2016 before returning to play live shows in 2019 and releasing new music in 2023, Gossip are now a more mature outfit than when Standing In The Way… became an LGBT pride anthem and student disco staple.
There are nods to the trio’s rock roots, but also a drift towards the disco leanings and ballads of Ditto’s 2017 solo album Fake Sugar. The band were coaxed back into the studio by producer Rick Rubin, who helmed 2009’s Music For Men, and these songs bear all the hallmarks of his stripped-back approach.
‘Every beat of my heart is a merciful Act Of God,’ roars Ditto on Act Of God, evoking Debbie Harry on a track that sticks to the tried and trusted. Guitarist Nathan Howdeshell adds chiming riffs on Crazy Again. Ditto is completely in her element as the focus shifts to the dancefloor on the title track, although Real Power unfortunately loses its momentum as the pace slackens. Ditto’s laidback delivery gets the better of her on Light It Up, but she shows her adaptability on the Americana ballad Peace And Quiet. With such a good country voice, maybe it’ll be next stop Nashville.
■ Both albums are out today. Elbow play Trinity College Summer Series in Dublin on July 1, Gossip play Wider Than Pictures, Collins Barracks on August 27, see ticketmaster.ie