Why Elbow are joined at the hip
AFTER the surprise success of Elbow’s fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid, the quintet of care-worn Mancunians has been careful not to squander the good will. They constructed a poetic ode to youthful waywardness on 2011’s Build A Rocket Boys!. Now, with their 40s knocking, they have recorded a moving meditation on age, loss and the strange ebbs and flows of life. It’s The Take Off and Landing of Everything and they are confident it’s their best LP.
“Usually, at the end of making an album, you feel a bit lost,” says guitarist, Mark Potter. “You have this attitude of, ‘oh, I don’t know what people will think’. It’s an uncertain period. You are about to put your hard work before the world and be judged. This time, we are quite happy. We really believe in it. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. It is unusual for us to be this at ease at the start of the process.”
