Elbow

★★★ Leaders Of The Free World POLYDOR. LP Their third album, reissued on vinyl. Their best was still to come, but when Elbow returned to their Manchester base to produce 2005’s Leaders Of The Free World themselves, it represented the moment the band really began to shape their own destiny. It’s now reissued on vinyl with its two predecessors Asleep In The

Back and Cast Of Thousands, both recorded with outside producers away from home. This was also the moment when Elbow embraced both what would become their subsequent trademark warmth and the uplifting power of a chorus, most winningly on Mexican Standoff and Station Approach, while Forget Myself was their first truly great song and the first which would make sense in the arenas they would soon be frequenting. However, this was still evolution rather than revolution, and Guy Garvey’s lyrics were still bereft (“I look for a plot where I can bury my broken heart”), while The Stops and My Very Best overly meandered. But from here it was time to soar. John Aizlewood