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Rating: What do Elbow lack to become great?
A mystery without an answer for over a good half-decade, ever since "Asleep in the Back" saw the light, the album of the year for me and a good example of that (pop)rock which seems to have practically abandoned us to the mercy of this army of next big shit.
"Leaders Of The Free World" is the third chapter in a saga interrupted by the good "Cast Of Thousands", which for the record contained a pearl of rare beauty for me, "Fugitive Motel" (for those who want to delve deeper, I recommend the special edition with an attached DVD: the video is even more wonderful).
An album every two years for Elbow and let's be honest: they all sound a bit similar. Complex arrangements, ethereal voice, delicate and sumptuous guitar-bass interplays, heartfelt singing. Radiohead-like, to whom, indeed, something has always been missing to become Radiohead.
But what?
I've had the chance to attend a concert three times; at the end of one of these, I was fortunate enough to meet Guy Garvey, but when I asked him, he didn’t answer, so since then I have been looking at the rivers for something else poignant that might interest me.
I like to imagine that "Leaders Of The Free World" is their most rock album (if we exclude the litany opening of "Station Approach": but all Elbow albums start in a litany): note the compelling bass of the title track, a six-minute ride at the Robert Smith-Depeche Mode borders, or that "Mexican Standoff" which - although nestled between two delightful and subtle lightnesses - sounds like raging Tindersticks on acid.
An enchanting album.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Station Approach (04:22)
I haven't been myself of late
I haven't slept for several days
But coming home I feel like I
Designed these buildings I walk by
You know you drive me up the wall
I need to see your face that's all
You little sod, I love your eyes
Be everything to me tonight
Be everything to me tonight
I never know what I want but I know when I'm low that I
I need to be in the town where they know what I'm like and don't mind
(repeat)
The streets are full of Goths and Greeks
I haven't seen my mum for weeks
But coming home I feel like I
Designed these buildings I walk by
You know you drive me up the wall
I need to see your face that's all
You little sod, I love your eyes
Be everything to me tonight
Be everything to me tonight
02 Picky Bugger (03:07)
Drinking
In order to feel
Thinking
Reinventing the wheel
Kicking up mischief
And feeding the fire
Kicking up mischief
And walking the wire
Little fish you count for nothing
Do your thing until you die
Keep your powder dry
In order and line
Thinking and sinking the wine
Kicking up mischief and feeding the fire
Kicking up mischief and walking the wire
Little fish just keep on flapping
Do your thing until you die
Keep your powder dry
Thinking and sinking the wine
Kicking up mischief and feeding the fire
Kicking up mischief and walking the wire
Little fish just keep on flapping
Do your thing until you die
Keep your powder dry
Kicking up mischief and walking the wire
Kicking up mischief and feeding the fire
feeding the fire
03 Forget Myself (05:22)
They're pacing Piccadilly in packs again
And moaning for the mercy of a never come rain
The suns had enough and the simmering sky
Has the heave and the hue of a woman on fire
Shop shutters rattle down and I'm cutting the crowd
All scented and descending from the satellite towns
The neon is graffiti singing make a new start
So I look for a plot where I can bury my broken heart
No, I know I won't forget you
But I'll forget myself, if the city will forgive me
The man on the door has a head like Mars
Like a baby born to the doors of the bars
And surrounded by steam with his folded arms
He's got that urban genie thing going on
He's so mercifully free of the pressures of grace
Saint Peter in satin, he's like Buddha with mace
He's so mercifully free of the pressures of grace
Saint Peter in satin, he's like Buddha with mace
No, I know I won't forget you
But I'll forget myself, if the city will forgive me
No, I know I won't forget you
But I'll forget myself, if the city will forgive me
Do you move through the room with a glass in your hand
Thinking too hard about the way you stand
Are you watching them pair off and drinking them long
Are you falling in love every second song
Do you move through the room with a glass in your hand
Thinking too hard about the way you stand
Are you watching them pair off and drinking them long
Are you falling in love...
Are you falling in love...
Are you falling in love every second song
No, I know I won't forget you
But I'll forget myself, if the city will forgive me
05 Leaders of the Free World (06:11)
I'm sick of working for a living
I'm just ticking off the days till I die
Oh, I miss you Louise, yeah...
And the sickest little pleasures keep me going in between pulling teeth
Oh periscope up
I've been looking for a ladder
I need to see the commander in chief
And remind him what was passed onto me
Your mum don't sleep!
And the friends you keep!
I didn't raise a thief!
I didn't raise a thief!
But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes
My thinking isn't driven
But the music always gives me a lift
I'm so easy to please, yeah
But I think we dropped the baton like the 60's didn't happen, oh no!
Oh periscope up
Should be looking for a ladder
I need to see the commander in chief
And remind him what was passed onto me
Your mum don't sleep!
And the friends you keep!
I didn't raise a thief!
I didn't raise a thief!
But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes
But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes
Passing the gun from father to feckless son
We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young
Passing the gun from father to feckless son
06 An Imagined Affair (04:43)
A sky as black as regret
Is rolling aside for the blue
Impossible face to forget
These feelings belong in a zoo
She brings the morning
She, she brings the morning sun
So lost in the sound of her voice
I don't even hear the words
When she says, come on get out
The past will find us out
Come on get out please
And don't breathe a word
She brings the morning
She, she brings the morning sun
But all this an imagined affair
While sitting in a bar spilling in a bar
I drink until the doorman is a Christmas tree
And my speech is just a gas leak
She brings the morning
07 Mexican Standoff (04:01)
Shifting my weight now from foot to foot
What did she see in this man
I'm not superstitious but if I can get
This ball in the basket, then he'll wake up dead
Your sweet reassurances don't change the fact
That he's better looking than me
Yet he'd look ideal 'neath the wheels of a car
Oh Mexican standoff I wish I was hard
Your sweet reassurances don't change the fact
That he's better looking than me
Yet he'd look ideal 'neath the wheels of a car
Oh Mexican standoff I wish I was hard
08 The Everthere (04:13)
All my saints have taken bribes
Singing going going gone
All the angels taken dives
Leaving you the only one
If I loose a sequin here and there
More salt than pepper in my hair
Can I rely on you
When all the songs are through
To be for me the everthere, everthere
Slide into another book
Now and then laugh out loud
Throw that very dirty look
That says
OK
Stop staring at me now
If I loose the sequence here and there
Less derring do than quiet care
Can I rely on you
For a good talking to
To be for me the everthere, everthere
If I loose a sequin here and there
And take my time on every stair
Can I rely on you
When this whole thing is through
09 My Very Best (05:33)
Well, give that girl my very best
Though it never made the grade
If it seems that it's just not enough to love
Then love lie down
And would you tell her
Not to talk as if I died
Though a tiny part just did
And would you tell her
I'm from a long line of survivors
And I'll be swinging with the kids
Keep your sympathy
Don't need the healing to start
You've gone
Gone and made a beautiful hole in my heart
In the corner of the room
In the room we used to love
Of the love we should say this
There were switches never flicked
Long away and far apart
That's how forest fires start
Start again it felt like this
Fresh and simple as a kiss
I bounce these feelings off the moon
The echoes don't come back
Keep your sympathy
Don't need the healing to start
You've gone
Gone and made a beautiful hole in my heart
Of the love we should say this
There were, there were switches never flicked
Keep your sympathy
Don't need the healing to start
You've gone
Gone and made a beautiful hole in my heart
Keep your sympathy
Don't need the healing to start
You've gone
10 Great Expectations (05:05)
And if it rains all day
Call on you I'll call on you
Like I used to
Slide down beside and wrap you in stories
Tailored entirely for you
I'll remind you
We exchanged a vow
I love you I always will
A call girl with yesterday eyes
Was our witness and priest
Stockport supporters club kindly provided a choir
Your vow was your smile
As we move down the isle
Of the last bus home
And this is where I go
Just when it rains
Blinking and stoned
Rain in your hair
You only smoke ‘cause it's something to share
Singing bring on the night
To have and to hold
The sodium light turning silver to gold
Spitfire thin and strung like a violin
I was
Yours was the face with a grace
From a different age
You were the sun in my Sunday morning
You were the sun in my Sunday morning
Telling me never to go
So I'll live on the smile
And move down the isle
Of the last bus home
And if you're running late
This is where I'll go
11 Puncture Repair (01:48)
I leaned on you today
I regularly hurt but never say
I nearly wore the window through
Where was air sea rescue?
The cavalry with tea and sympathy
You were there
Puncture repair
I leaned on you today
I regularly hurt but never say
You patched me up and sent me on my way
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