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Post by Panda on Nov 9, 2020 20:52:09 GMT 1
Of those posted so far I think 'Leaders Of The Free World' would be the only one to make my Elbow top 10.
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Post by greendemon on Nov 10, 2020 13:00:27 GMT 1
Of those posted so far I think 'Leaders Of The Free World' would be the only one to make my Elbow top 10. Ha, I wondered if that might be the case when I saw you entered 'Open Arms' in Time Machine; I've never been a huge fan of that one. Would be interested to see your list
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Nov 10, 2020 13:03:22 GMT 1
I'm sitting out of the Elbow debate, they make hte colour beige look interesting I did like a few songs from Seldom Seen Kid though
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Post by Panda on Dec 29, 2020 3:29:03 GMT 1
Of those posted so far I think 'Leaders Of The Free World' would be the only one to make my Elbow top 10. Ha, I wondered if that might be the case when I saw you entered 'Open Arms' in Time Machine; I've never been a huge fan of that one. Would be interested to see your list OK, finally got around to compiling my Elbow top 10! First, a few honourable mentions... FIRST STEPS - The BBC's theme music for the 2012 Olympics. I first heard it when the full-length trailer was played at half time during the final of Euro 2012 and I was absolutely blown away. The full thing is 6 minutes long but this version captures it perfectly and reminds me of a time when, for a few weeks, there was a reason to feel good about being British... ASLEEP IN THE BACK - A piano-driven track that shares its name with their debut album but was only included later as a bonus track. OPEN ARMS - One of my Time Machine choices. Not many people's favourite Elbow track but one that was very personal to me at the time. The top 10: 10. MAGNIFICENT (SHE SAYS) 9. FORGET MYSELF 8. WHITE NOISE WHITE HEAT 7. NEW YORK MORNING 6. LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD 5. FUGITIVE MOTEL 4. FLY BOY BLUE/LUNETTE 3. THE LONELINESS OF A TOWER CRANE DRIVER (BBC Concert Orchestra version) 2. ANY DAY NOW 1. POWDER BLUE
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TheThorne
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*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
Posts: 27,553
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 29, 2020 9:55:39 GMT 1
So are we getting F soon, some predictions Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, Feeder, Foals?
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Post by greendemon on Dec 29, 2020 14:13:59 GMT 1
Sorry guys! I've been very busy over the past couple of months and completely forgot I hadn't even finished E The end of my Elbow top 3 will be up later today, and then we'll start on F. I'm way off schedule so lots of catching up to do!
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Post by greendemon on Dec 29, 2020 14:14:36 GMT 1
So are we getting F soon, some predictions Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, Feeder, Foals? Those are all fair guesses, I think you probably know who F is though!
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Post by greendemon on Dec 29, 2020 14:17:06 GMT 1
Ha, I wondered if that might be the case when I saw you entered 'Open Arms' in Time Machine; I've never been a huge fan of that one. Would be interested to see your list OK, finally got around to compiling my Elbow top 10! First, a few honourable mentions... FIRST STEPS - The BBC's theme music for the 2012 Olympics. I first heard it when the full-length trailer was played at half time during the final of Euro 2012 and I was absolutely blown away. The full thing is 6 minutes long but this version captures it perfectly and reminds me of a time when, for a few weeks, there was a reason to feel good about being British... ASLEEP IN THE BACK - A piano-driven track that shares its name with their debut album but was only included later as a bonus track. OPEN ARMS - One of my Time Machine choices. Not many people's favourite Elbow track but one that was very personal to me at the time. The top 10: 10. MAGNIFICENT (SHE SAYS) 9. FORGET MYSELF 8. WHITE NOISE WHITE HEAT 7. NEW YORK MORNING 6. LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD 5. FUGITIVE MOTEL 4. FLY BOY BLUE/LUNETTE 3. THE LONELINESS OF A TOWER CRANE DRIVER (BBC Concert Orchestra version) 2. ANY DAY NOW 1. POWDER BLUE Thanks for sharing this! Although there isn't much crossover between our lists, I do have a couple of those in my honourable mentions as well. Your top three are all gorgeous songs. 'Fugitive Motel' I used to love but have gone off a bit.
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Post by greendemon on Dec 29, 2020 17:24:47 GMT 1
Here we go at last...!
3. Scattered Black and Whites (Asleep In The Back, 2001)
The closing track from their debut album has always been one of my absolute favourites. With its acoustic-guitar-driven melody, the gradual introduction of the piano and those beautifully evocative lyrics, I genuinely think it's one of the most gorgeous songs in their repertoire. 'Scattered Black and Whites', as the title suggests, is about nostalgia and childhood memories, but despite the line 'I come back here from time to time', this nostalgia seems tied more to the memories themselves - and photographs - than any physical location. Though I've always loved this one, I wonder whether its impact on me has been enhanced by the fact that the house which is wrapped up in almost all my happiest childhood memories is now no longer in the family, and so the sense of being able to separate the physical location from the memories is an important one to me.
One more from AITB...
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Post by greendemon on Dec 29, 2020 17:25:27 GMT 1
2. Lippy Kids (Build A Rocket Boys!, 2011)
Ten years after Scattered Black and Whites, here is another song about childhood nostalgia, this time focusing on teenagers. Garvey wrote of 'Lippy Kids' that it was intended as a defence of the much-maligned British teenager, demonised by the press for lurking on corners with their hoods up - which it is, but it's also full of encouragement and even tinged with a little sadness for those lost days: 'Do they know those days are golden? / Build a rocket, boys!'
I certainly didn't plan to have two songs with such similar themes in my Elbow top 3, but I love how uplifting and full of hope this song manages to be with actually very little in the way of instrumentation or even lyrics. A definite standout in their catalogue.
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Post by greendemon on Dec 29, 2020 17:46:18 GMT 1
1. Newborn (Asleep In The Back, 2001)This probably won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me! This absolute masterpiece of a song has been my favourite Elbow track for as long as I've been into the band and honestly I don't think it will ever be replaced: for quite a while it was my all-time favourite song by any artist. Unfortunately, it's perhaps not the best gateway to Elbow, given that it is over seven minutes long and is, once again, about death... It is, of course, about a couple vowing to grow old together, with lyrics that are sweet and beautiful but also blunt to the point of occasionally becoming macabre: ' I'll be the corpse in your bathtub' (that particular gem got it banned from the radio after the unfortunate timing of its release coinciding with September 2001...) It's beautiful, but it's also unflinching from the reality of what this kind of commitment means. The imagery is powerful and moving, but I think what I love most of all is the music: the Bohemian Rhapsody-esque transition through all the different phases of the song, from the quiet, peaceful beginning to the cacophony at the end. The changes feel so seamless you almost don't notice until the roaring crescendo kicks off. It's an incredibly powerful song and I honestly don't think they'll ever top it. Near misses coming tomorrow most likely, along with the F reveal and probably the first few songs too
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Post by greendemon on Dec 30, 2020 16:26:27 GMT 1
My Elbow longlist...
Powder Blue (Asleep In The Back, 2001)
A much-loved early single and another beautiful song from their debut.
Little Beast (Asleep In The Back, 2001)
This one is perhaps a little underappreciated compared to other songs from AITB. They tapped into a real vein of creepiness on this album that they've never really gone back to since. See also 'Any Day Now', 'Don't Mix Your Drinks' (both of which I also considered) and 'Bitten By The Tailfly' (which I did not).
Asleep In The Back (Asleep In The Back, 2001)
This gorgeous song is a bit of a weird one - it only appears on later issues of the album of the same name (not including mine, which has 'Can't Stop' instead), so I only discovered it later. It reminds me a bit more of the material on their next two albums than the debut.
Not A Job (Cast Of Thousands, 2003)
I also considered the third single from COT; one of my favourites from their early catalogue.
Station Approach (Leaders Of The Free World, 2005)
I love a good slow-build song and this one is brilliant - one of their best album openers!
George Lassoes The Moon (Any Day Now EP, 2001)
I so wanted to find room for this one in the top 10, but didn't quite manage it. This was the only 'obscure' track I really considered: it was one of my first discoveries after AITB. The use of the organ on this is fantastic!
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Post by greendemon on Dec 30, 2020 18:05:56 GMT 1
Time to get started on F! This was another letter where I had a lot of potential choices, but only one I was really strongly drawn to, so it wasn't too difficult a decision - and again, the eventual choice probably won't come as a surprise! We'll start by eliminating a couple of artists I like, but just don't know enough of their material to really make a plausible top 10... First to go from my shortlist was Franz Ferdinand. I loved them when they shot to stardom with 'Take Me Out' and their debut album was brilliant, but although I bought the follow-up I think I just drifted away from them a bit. When o mentored them in Haven Factor 8, I enjoyed getting back into their older material and rediscovering some newer ones I'd missed! I'm not sure what my favourite song of theirs is, but this is one of the contenders: A band that was mentioned, but probably hasn't has as much of my attention as they deserve is Foals. They have been a bit hit or miss for me. I actually didn't like What Went Down, and still haven't got around to listening to the two from last year, but 2013's Holy Fire was an album of the year contender for me. So I think I just need to investigate them a bit more extensively. There are very few songs I don't love on Holy Fire, but this one is one of my favourites.
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Post by greendemon on Dec 30, 2020 18:17:12 GMT 1
One artist I'm surprised no-one mentioned is Scottish indie outfit, Frightened Rabbit. I only discovered them relatively recently (I think round about the time 'The Woodpile' came out) but have got into their older material since then. Pedestrian Verse would probably be in my top 10 albums of the last decade: there are few people in music with the kind of lyric-writing skill that Scott Hutchison had and I am still so sad that he is no longer with us I'd share 'The Woodpile' again but for having recently used it in Time Machine. So instead, this is another one of my favourites from their standout album for its devastatingly bleak, unflinching lyrics.
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Post by greendemon on Dec 30, 2020 18:17:45 GMT 1
Next we have one of my absolute favourite bands from the 2000s - Sunderland post-punk band, The Futureheads. Their debut album got so many plays when I was at uni that I'm surprised the CD still works! I went to see them in Leeds and can remember being so impressed by their energy; out of all the bands I've seen they are one of the best at getting the crowd involved. They have such a unique style - one of those bands that's instantly recognisable as soon as you hear a song. I haven't loved all of their albums since then but they are one of the few outfits still knocking around from my uni days that are still together (barring their hiatus) and producing great music. Their acapella album, Rant, was a really refreshing change in direction: as an indie-loving medievalist, I couldn't help but love their version of 'Sumer is icumen in'! I'm sharing this one, not necessarily because it's my favourite (though it's definitely up there) but because since the start of the pandemic I've been mentally singing the first verse and chorus while washing my hands as my standard 20 seconds+ timer And then there were two...
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Post by greendemon on Dec 30, 2020 19:09:07 GMT 1
The last to be eliminated from my F shortlist was, of course, Foo Fighters - one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. As with many of these, I first got into them as a teenager and they have been a mainstay of my record collection ever since. My favourite album is probably still The Colour And The Shape but they have been consistently great for the past two-and-a-half decades. I have seen them live only once - at the Reading Festival, over ten years ago now - but they are at the very top of my 'one day I will be quick and/or rich enough to buy tickets' list.
So many songs I could highlight, but it has to be this one:
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Post by Smurfie on Dec 30, 2020 19:12:36 GMT 1
Fingers crossed for 5ive.
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Post by Panda on Dec 30, 2020 19:16:40 GMT 1
The Fall. Nailed on.
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Good Old Days
Member
Sielos grožio niekas nepavogs, kol širdy jaunystė gros.
Posts: 2,973
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Post by Good Old Days on Dec 30, 2020 19:25:42 GMT 1
Fratellis ?
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Post by Smurfie on Dec 30, 2020 19:27:28 GMT 1
No ways.
Fairground Attraction Flo Rida
Oh god not no Florence and the Machine!
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