Album Review: Elbow - 'Flying Dream 1'

Elbow have shown consistent quality control over over two decades: you could call them the James Milner of indie.

Written during lockdown and recorded in Brighton’s 200-year-old Theatre Royal, Flying Dream 1 doesn’t deviate hugely from the blueprint that has served Elbow well over their previous eight albums: quietly arresting singalong anthems, presided over by Guy Garvey’s whip-smart lyricism and warm, everyman personality. It’s perhaps a little more hushed, a reassuring arm around the shoulder and the tenderest of hugs, with Garvey whispering in your ear that everything’s going to be OK in the end. 

It’s all pretty gorgeous, but ‘Six Words’ is deserving of special mention: the delicate sound of falling in love, it’s refreshingly free of cynicism and brimming over with tinkling piano, choral vocals and lyrics to fill your heart: “Only falling gives you wings like these/ Last wink of the sinking sun means/ I get to see you later.”

Then there’s the gently restorative ‘Come On, Blue’, with its repeated coda of “Love transcends”, the gently insistent ‘The Only Road’ and ‘What Am I Without You’ – the kind of soaring, uplifting ballad that deserves to be sung in a field with a cast of thousands. 

Listen: ‘Six Words’