I’m disappointed with the new Elbow album (ok so now it’s not that new). Admittedly I had high expectations as Cast of Thousands was one of the best albums of its year but so far Leaders of the Free World is not hitting anything like the 3 good tracks required to make an album “worth buying”, let alone the 6 that make it a “good album”.
In fact one of the best riffs is wasted on a song which contravenes the Alice Cooper principle:
“If you’re listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you’re a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we’re morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal.”
Even with one of the best lyricists around today, Elbow can’t help churning out a simplistic sensationalist track when they get into politics. Sorry guys, musicians making political statements almost always fall flat on their face in implementation and end up with flat, ultimatum driven dross.
John Lennon’s superlative “Imagine” is the one really beautiful political song that comes to mind and that’s also founded on ridiculously simplistic grounds (John himself called it a “sugar coated communist manifesto”).
Anyhow, on first listen there’s nothing close to Fallen Angel, Fugitive Motel, Switching Off, Not a Job or any of the amazing tracks on Cast of Thousands. Hoping for better on second run-through tomorrow.
Thankfully, even if Elbow doesn’t pick up on further sampling, I have The Essential Herbie Hancock to enjoy. Hope its selection is as good as The Essential Dexter Gordon which I was very impressed with - hauling in tracks that let him draw from his Bebop sensibilities with a solid session group.
Fact: It’s impossible to write anything about music without sounding pretentious.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at November 8, 2005 10:22 PM