Build A Rocket Boys (Import)

VINYL FORMAT. Import! Singer Guy Garvey's elevation to cover-boy status is not the only improbable aspect of Elbow's late-blooming success. You could argue that in the current climate, late-blooming success itself is pretty improbable: regularly appended to Elbow's name, the phrase "the people's band" – with its weird implication that every other double-platinum artist has a fanbase largely comprised of budgerigars or golden retrievers – tells you more about journalists struggling to come to terms with the baffling concept of a band that's got big after four albums, rather than arriving in a blaze of glory, then vanishing after 18 months. More specifically, Elbow belong in the pantheon of artists who have got big as a result of one rather atypical song. That song has certain Elbow traits, being tender and suffused with melancholy: in the teeth of its adoption as a wedding anthem and default finale to the kind of ghastly TV programme in which people announce they're on "a journey", it's worth remembering "One Day Like This" concerns a protagonist wistfully imagining how incredible it would be to have it off once a year. But those not familiar with their earlier oeuvre should note that before the deluge, Elbow's most high-profile fan was probably John Cale, not a man you imagine spends a lot of time punching the air to uplifting stadium rock.

Too old to have their heads turned by mainstream success, but too big-hearted, maybe too grateful, to spurn it with a churlish how-do-you-like-us-now gesture, Build a Rocket Boys! sees Elbow doing perhaps the smartest thing you could under the circumstances: carrying on regardless. You could argue that "Neat Little Rows" represents an amalgam of the best-known moments of its predecessor, The Seldom Seen Kid – the chorus soars towards the arena's upper tiers, the guitars crunch as on "Grounds for Divorce" – and that "Open Arms" clearly has its heart set on stirring vast crowds. But it goes about it via a pleasingly serpentine route, with a lyric about a community centre – if the nation takes it to its heart, it will presumably be the first lighters-aloft anthem in history to mention both folding chairs and finger rolls – a dinky synthesised backing that recalls the sound of the combos who played on said community centre's stage, and the unexpected arrival, one minute and three seconds in, of the Hallé Youth Choir. Build a Rocket Boys! makes Elbow's success seem anything but implausible. It may be that people drawn in by "One Day Like This" hung around because they found music that, while less straightforward, was warm and generous and inventive. If so, they'll find more of it here. – The Guardian