As much as I hate to admit it, poetry isn’t really my thing. It is rare that I appreciate stanzas as more than black ink on white paper, or manage to look beyond contrived literary imagery. But Guy Garvey’s poetic illustrations of the everyday never fail to evoke memories, images and emotion somewhere within me that I didn’t quite know existed.
After the success of Mercury awarded album The Seldom Seen Kid, some worried that Elbow would follow other award winning artists and end up with nothing more to sing about but popularity, paparazzi, and the trouble of new-found fame. Luckily the five piece have remained as grounded as ever, continuing to tell blushingly intimate stories of their past from their understated corner of Manchester.
Build A Rocket Boys! turns away from the sorrow and darkness of The Seldom Seen Kid, moving instead towards fond recollections of adolescence and tales of “stealing booze and hour long hungry kisses.” Garvey’s lyrics still strike a resounding chord with the everyday experiences of the common man; ‘Jesus is a Rochdale Girl’ beautifully narrates moving in with a significant other, as ‘The Night Will Always Win’ gives an honest recount of the silliness and trivialities of early romance. The lively ‘With Love’ shimmers with amusing drunken lamentations such as “I’d give my liver to see you,” whilst in ‘Lippy Kids’, Garvey elucidates the lives of hoodies on street corners.
Elbow’s charm lies in painting the mundaneness of everyday into a portrait of beauty and wonder, transforming small details into striking nostalgia and Build a Rocket Boys! remains testament to this skill. It’s a less hungry album, more contemplative and reflective. The five piece have, yet again, made an album able to soothe yet swell the soul; their contagious melancholy conjuring a sense of euphoria amongst listeners, as they are drawn by Garvey into reminiscing on times gone by.