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Post by greendemon on Oct 30, 2020 20:41:21 GMT 1
A few days late but it's time to unveil the E act - I'm sorry to have left you all in such unbearable suspense Loads of great acts have been namedropped already, but I must confess to being either not overly familiar or fond of most of them As I'm sure most of you can guess, there was a pretty obvious choice for E and I won't pretend otherwise! That said, there are a couple of other E acts who are worthy of a nod in passing... First up we have legendary US rock band, The Eagles. Yet another artist I have my dad to thank for introducing me! The 1994 Very Best Of album was another mainstay for long car journeys, though he also had a number of their other LPs. I think on balance I'm actually a bigger fan of Don Henley's solo material than I am of his band (more on that in a couple of months!) So many great songs I could highlight - 'Take It Easy', 'Lyin' Eyes' and 'Desperado' come to mind - but it really has to be the obvious choice... This song feels appropriate at this time of year due to the superstitions caught up in it - my cousin (now sadly deceased) once told me that if it came on the radio while you were driving, you were sure to have an accident. My dad always found the line 'you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave' completely hilarious
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Post by greendemon on Oct 30, 2020 20:49:39 GMT 1
A bit more solidly in contention were Editors. From the moment I first heard of them back in the mid-00s I have loved this band and their dark-wave-post-punk sound. I still hold the opinion that I had at the time it came out that The Back Room is one of the finest debut albums ever made - almost every track is superb - and they have been producing brilliant albums since. I actually think they have been more consistent over the years than the artist I eventually chose! I've only seen them live once before, at Reading Festival back in their early days. I passed on a chance to see them a second time in February this year on their Black Gold tour due to a clash with a work trip - something I now regret 'Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors' runs it close, but my favourite is still the first song I ever heard by them:
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Post by greendemon on Oct 30, 2020 21:00:02 GMT 1
Which means that my choice for E is, of course, Elbow! I know, I know, literally everyone saw that coming From the time my dad returned from a business trip with a copy of their debut, Asleep In The Back, with the words 'this sounds like the kind of thing you'd like', I completely fell in love with this band, and they held the (let's be real, not especially coveted) position of my favourite artist for over a decade. My Elbow obsession is, of course, well-known here, and it may come as something of a surprise that I have drifted ever so slightly away from them in recent years: I haven't bought an album of theirs since 2014's The Take Off And Landing Of Everything That said, I still adore their first four albums, especially Asleep In The Back which I still think is an absolute masterpiece. Expect to see quite a few songs from that record here I'll get this out of the way now, though: this list is not going to feature 'One Day Like This'. It's just never really done it for me, sorry! Your E act is such a no brainer, not sure if it’s with guessing but I will try and guess your short list elbow Eagles Editors Well done! You win the warm feeling of smugness for a few minutes, enjoy
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Post by Whitneyfan on Oct 30, 2020 21:05:07 GMT 1
'One day like this' is probably my favourite song of the whole noughties decade... or it would definitely be in the top 5 anyway!
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Post by Panda on Oct 30, 2020 21:27:01 GMT 1
I'm stunned! Seriously though, I'm looking forward to this list. Elbow would be in my top 10 bands of all time so I may ponder coming up with my own top 10. Not sure 'One Day Like This' would be in mine either.
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Post by Smurfie on Oct 30, 2020 23:04:34 GMT 1
I know exactly five Elbow songs, so this will be an eye opener for me. And one of those is 10/10 though never ventured further (it’s not One Day Like This).
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Post by Shireblogger on Oct 30, 2020 23:12:11 GMT 1
I think I dislike Elbow a lot. But I'll listen to your Top 10, and see if my mind changes.
Much prefer Editors and Eagles.
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Post by Milliways on Oct 30, 2020 23:18:07 GMT 1
I don’t dislike Elbow particularly, just find them a little bland for my tastes.
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Roo.
Member
Posts: 17,866
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Post by Roo. on Oct 31, 2020 1:23:06 GMT 1
The only Elbow song I like is One Day Like This, although the one in Time Machine was good, so maybe I should give them another try.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 8, 2020 12:15:46 GMT 1
It's been over a week since I unveiled E - time to finally start posting it I suppose I've played around with the order of these in the past few days more than any other list I've done so far, so this top 10 would probably look different if I did it next week! (Though the top 3 have remained the same throughout ) 10. Red (Asleep In The Back, 2001)Kicking things off appropriately with Elbow's debut single (#36 in 2001) and, being the second track on Asleep In The Back, the second song I ever heard by them. The subject matter - the hopelessness of loving a drug addict: ' you're a tragedy starting to happen'- is particularly bleak, even by the standards of this album which is perhaps still the darkest they've ever made thematically. I think what really pushed this one into my top 10 is its gorgeous instrumentation, particularly the strings at the end, which is why I've shared the album version instead of the music video as the video edit seems to have cut most of that out. I love the piano riff which beautifully conveys the sense of spiralling downwards. I surprised myself by only including three songs from Asleep In The Back in this top 10. It's long been one of my favourite albums ever, but I think the thing is it works better as a whole than as individual songs: more than the sum of its parts. I think most people who know me could hazard a guess as to at least one of the other two still to come.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 8, 2020 12:46:35 GMT 1
9. Leaders Of The Free World (Leaders Of The Free World, 2005)It's hard not to think of Trump with the line ' The leaders of the free world are just little boys throwing stones', but this sharply-written and unusually overtly political Elbow single from their third album was written 15 years ago about a different administration, as becomes clear with ' Passing the gun from father to feckless son'. Be that as it may, the atmosphere of fear, paranoia and mistrust of one's leaders the song evokes are at least as relevant today as they were when it was written. Lyrics aside, this is one of Elbow's more successful forays into rockier territory - although that only translated into a #53 peak This is actually the last we'll be seeing of this album in the top 10, although a couple more will be on the shortlist.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 8, 2020 13:08:33 GMT 1
8. Friend Of Ours (The Seldom Seen Kid, 2008)
This is about the point in this list where I feel every one of the remaining songs should be in the top 5. This heartbreaking album track from the Mercury Prize-winning The Seldom Seen Kid was written about Bryan Glancy, a songwriter and close friend of the band. Glancy died in 2006. People always speak fondly of their friends and relatives who've passed on, but to hear Guy Garvey talk of Glancy, you really get the sense that he was someone special: The album - and the Mercury Prize - were dedicated to Glancy (apparently they gave his mother the trophy to put on her mantelpiece!). If you've ever lost a good friend, I defy you to listen to this and not be moved.
Garvey has also said he thinks this is the best song on the album, and he's probably right. There is one more to come, though, not least because as gorgeous as this song is, I can't listen to it very often without getting emotional!
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Post by greendemon on Nov 8, 2020 13:20:51 GMT 1
More tomorrow!
The top 7 include: - 2 from Asleep In The Back - 2 from Cast Of Thousands - 1 from The Seldom Seen Kid - 1 from Build A Rocket Boys! - 1 from The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
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Post by greendemon on Nov 9, 2020 14:57:26 GMT 1
7. Colour Fields (The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, 2014)
This is the most recent entry in the list and is the only song from the last Elbow album I bought. I have to confess that this record as a whole really doesn't grab me the way their first five albums have done, and it has the fewest plays out of anything Elbow-related I own. This album track, however, is a standout and is in all honesty the only song from the album in my regular music circulation. I love the drumming and that muffled organ that puts me in mind of some of their earliest material, and the lyrics have that kind of poetic flow that Garvey is so good at. Written from the point of view of a father figure, 'Colour Fields' is an appeal to a 'bright girl' in a 'dead town' to get out and find a better life for herself, somewhere 'where all the stories meant for you have already started'. At the time it was written, Garvey was the only member of Elbow not yet to have become a father, and so the 'bright girl' is an entirely imagined person.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 9, 2020 15:02:15 GMT 1
It's not getting any more cheerful, I'm afraid...
6. Switching Off (Cast Of Thousands, 2004)
Ah yes, yet another song about death! This has always been one of my very favourite Elbow songs since Cast Of Thousands came out, both in the years before the true meaning of it hit me and after. I'm not sure the album has aged that well for me: before preparing for this top 10, I couldn't remember the last time I'd played it all the way through. Compared to both their debut and the albums that came after it, The Seldom Seen Kid particularly, it just feels a bit lacking somehow. That said, this song is gorgeous and still very much a highlight across their whole repertoire. It deals with the idea of dying and 'choosing your final thoughts' - euthanasia, yes, but more generally, choosing the memory you want to cling to at that final moment, and spending that moment with the people you're closest to. It should probably be higher, but like 'Friend Of Ours', my personal history with family deaths means I struggle to listen to this one very often. But it is absolutely beautiful.
One more to come from Cast Of Thousands...
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Post by greendemon on Nov 9, 2020 15:39:38 GMT 1
...and here it is 5. Grace Under Pressure (Cast Of Thousands, 2004)I'm aware that saying that you're an Elbow fan but you're not keen on the one mega-hit they've had does sound a little bit like 'I liked them while they were still cool and unknown'. And honestly I wish I did like 'One Day Like This'. I was, and still am, absolutely delighted for the band that the song helped them to finally attain the recognition and fame they always deserved. And it's not even that I can't see why people love it: it's got those uplifting and instantly-recognisable strings, the bright, positive lyrics, and most of all, that big, euphoric, chanty chorus. Thing is, I've never been able to shake the sense that 'Grace Under Pressure' did virtually all of that years before, and did it so much better. There isn't much to 'Grace Under Pressure': it's a simple four-line verse repeated over and over, while the instrumentation builds and builds into this cacophony of noise, and culminating in the refrain 'We still believe in love, so f*ck you' which was recorded by the crowd at the 2002 Glastonbury Festival - a fact referenced in the name of the album. What the song does so well for me is evoke the feeling of being in a crowd at a festival, surrounded by thousands of people (as hard as that seems to imagine at the moment!), and the kind of universal euphoria that comes with that. I know swearing in music isn't to everyone's taste, but that refrain - peaceful but with an edge of defiance - is the best thing about 'Grace Under Pressure' and is one of my favourite lines in any Elbow song.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 9, 2020 16:17:33 GMT 1
4. Grounds For Divorce (The Seldom Seen Kid, 2008)
In my days of peak Elbowvangelism during the 00s, I always struggled when trying to introduce people to the band with how to describe their music (catch-all terms like 'alternative rock' and 'indie' are never especially helpful). My friends whose music tastes crossed over with mine to any degree tended to prefer rock and metal, and at the time Elbow also hadn't recorded much that really fell under the recognisably 'rock' bracket, bar a handful of songs here and there, and I wouldn't have recommended anyone check out Elbow on the basis of 'Bitten By The Tailfly'. So when I first heard 'Grounds For Divorce', I did the mental equivalent of a fist-pump. This was that rare thing - an Elbow rock song - and it was actually really, really good.
'Grounds For Divorce' was the lead single from The Seldom Seen Kid. Reaching #19, it was only their second ever top 20 single, but was very well-received, particularly for its cutting lyrics (how good of an opening line is 'I've been working on a cocktail called Grounds For Divorce'?) and its bluesy swagger. It wasn't the start of a new direction for them - it's probably still, to date, the heaviest song they've ever recorded - but it's still my favourite track on my second-favourite album of theirs.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 9, 2020 16:17:51 GMT 1
Top 3 tomorrow!
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TheThorne
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*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
Posts: 27,536
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Post by TheThorne on Nov 9, 2020 16:34:49 GMT 1
My favourite Elbow song for all the reasons you state, its actually a rock song and it hits you hard sound wise and lyrically
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Post by Earl Purple on Nov 9, 2020 17:32:07 GMT 1
There are obviously 2 contenders for F but I think one of those is a dead cert.
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