The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
11
new
SPILL FEATURE: THE ROLLING STONES’ UNZIPPED – A CONVERSATION WITH THEMUSEUM’S DAVID MARSKELL
SPILL FEATURE: I WAS ROCKER SPICE – A CONVERSATION WITH KATHY VALENTINE OF THE GO-GO’S
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – MECHANICAL SOUL
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GRIEVOUS ANGELS – THE SUMMER BEFORE THE STORM
SPILL NEWS: LISA GERRARD AND JULES MAXWELL (OF DEAD CAN DANCE) SIGN TO ATLANTIC CURVE + ANNOUNCE NEW BURN ALBUM TO BE RELEASED MAY 7
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: CHURCH OF TREES FEAT. CAROLE POPE – “WORLD’S A BITCH”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: EX EN PROVENCE – “COUNTING DOWN THE SUNS”
SPILL LIVE REVIEW: LORD HURON ALIVE FROM WHISPERING PINES: EPISODE 1 OF 4 (VIRTUAL EVENT)
SPILL NEW MUSIC: THE MYSTICS – “BLACK WIDOW”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: TAMAR APHEK – “RUSSIAN WINTER”
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE DIRTY NIL – FUCK ART
  • MORE
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • TOTD
  • Books + Movies
  • Scene Unseen
  • About
  • Spill Menu
    • Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Festivals
    • Portraits
    • Headlines
      • News
      • Contests
      • Events
      • Entertainment Headlines
      • Concert Listings
      • Toronto Concert Venues
    • New Music
      • Premieres
      • TOTD
    • Books + Movies
    • Scene Unseen
    • About
REGISTER
@
LOGIN
Album Reviews
451
Editor Pick
previous article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BODEGA - SHINY NEW MODEL
next article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KIM GORDON - NO HOME RECORD

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ELBOW – GIANTS OF ALL SIZES

elbow

elbow
Giants Of All Sizes
Polydor Records/Verve Label Group
RATING

Manchester-based quartet elbow have been crafting songs and soundscapes of such warmth, honesty, and poetry as to be almost beyond description for two decades. Built around both the incredible instrumentation of band members Mark & Craig Potter and Pete Turner, and the glorious timbre of lead singer Guy Garvey, elbow have long been one of the clearest examples of putting aside egos in the interests of creativity. Their eighth album, 2019’s Giants of All Sizes sees them at the very peak of their powers, having spent time in the studio recording live together as well as in isolation, exercising their own creative muscle before integrating those ideas into the greater concept of the album as a whole. As with 2008’s Seldom Seen Kid and 2014’s The Take Off and Landing of Everything, the end result of the band’s creative approach is something hard to nail down in something so clumsy as the written word – Garvey is famous for the depth and breadth of his writing, just as he is with his remarkable vocal prowess, but it may just be that on Giants of All Sizes, that it is the music that steals the show.

There is no question that Giants of All Sizes is a bit of a departure from previous work, or perhaps even a return to their very early releases, in that the tone is decidedly darker and more pessimistic. Given the realities of post-Brexit, uber-conservative England, this is perhaps little surprise, but as is always the case with elbow’s work, the authenticity of their music cannot possibly be overstated. These are songs that tell less of the complexities of human emotion and more the frustrations of the current human experience, measured not just in the poetry of Garvey’s lyricism but also the dynamic shifts and heaviness of mood that surround those lyrics. “White Noise White Heat” uses horns, strings, and bass to punctuate the ease with which Garvey has become disenchanted with his present reality, “born with a trust that didn’t survive”, his positivity and optimism “beaten out of” him; on the Beatlesque “Doldrums”, Garvey’s confusion is echoed beautifully by the steady tumble of the percussion and doubled vocals. Then there is the stunning, gut-wrenching, grit-in-the-teeth “The Delayed 3:15”, Garvey’s account of an unnamed man’s suicide on the train tracks, his all-too-brutal emotional connection to the man, and the damning of a society uninterested or too quick to look the other way, the victim truly “just another man whose blues stopped his heart beneath our shoes”.

While the leanings may be those towards bleakness and perhaps even loss, all is not truly beyond hope, a fact made abundantly clear on the album’s closer “Weightless”. A song seemingly built around the parallels between the birth of Garvey’s son and the loss of his father ticks all the boxes as a classic work of beauty by this abundantly talented, emotive band – the guitar tone, the hypnotic pulse of the keys, the layered vocals, all of it speaks to the listener in a way that simply cannot be ignored. “Seven Veils”, though much less lyrically positive or uplifting, also doubles down on atmosphere and percussive movement, the end result being a classically memorable elbow tune.

A much-celebrated band capable of crafting moments of incredible beauty has not turned its gaze quite completely away, but this study of pessimism and doubt, loss and confusion, truly life in all its complexities, somehow still ends up feeling like a breath of much-needed fresh air.


Artist Links

website_flat_2016 facebook_flat_2016 twitter_flat_2016 instagram_flat_2016

Editor Pick
Item Reviewed

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ELBOW – GIANTS OF ALL SIZES

Author

Br.

Here's what we think...
Spill Rating
Fan Rating
Rate Here
New Criteria
10
7.4
9.0
Total Spill Rating
7.4
Total Fan Rating
6 ratings
You have rated this
Album Reviews
album reviewalbum reviewselbowgiants of all sizespolydor recordsverve label groupwhite noise white heat
album review, album reviews, elbow, giants of all sizes, polydor records, verve label group, white noise white heat
About the Author
Br.
Br.
Br. lives in southern Ontario, grew up on The Beatles and The Journeymen, spent his adolescence immersed in grunge, and his adulthood in British alternative. His greatest joy is seeing his son dance and grow into his own appreciation of the indescribable joy of music...
RELATED ARTICLES
album reviewalbum reviewselbow
 
8.0
Front Line Assembly
5.3

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – MECHANICAL SOUL

by Trista Whitman on January 15, 2021
Front Line Assembly Mechanical Soul Metropolis Records After over three decades of music from industrial greats Front Line Assembly, they’ve now released their 17th album, [...]
 
9.0
Grievous Angels

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GRIEVOUS ANGELS – THE SUMMER BEFORE THE STORM

by Aaron Badgley on January 15, 2021
Grievous Angels The Summer Before The Storm Jimmy Boyle Records The Grievous Angels made their debut in 1986, and The Summer Before The Storm, their eighth album, is [...]
 
7.0
The Dirty Nil
8.9

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE DIRTY NIL – FUCK ART

by Matt Owczarz on January 1, 2021
The Dirty Nil Fuck Art Dine Alone Records Fuck Art is the third studio album from the Hamilton, Ont.-based The Dirty Nil, in which they reaffirm their commitment to keeping the spirit of [...]
 
8.0
George Thorogood And The Destroyers
10

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS – LIVE IN BOSTON, 1982: THE COMPLETE CONCERT

by Aaron Badgley on December 18, 2020
George Thorogood And The Destroyers Live In Boston, 1982: The Complete Concert Craft Recordings George Thorogood has been making music [...]
 
10
Paul McCartney
9.2

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PAUL McCARTNEY – McCARTNEY III

by Aaron Badgley on December 18, 2020
Paul McCartney McCartney III MPL/Capitol Paul McCartney has always used music to get through difficult times. In 1970, when the Beatles split, he came out with the classic McCartney in [...]
Latest Album Reviews
View All
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – MECHANICAL SOUL
8.0
5.3
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GRIEVOUS ANGELS – THE SUMMER BEFORE THE S...
9.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE DIRTY NIL – FUCK ART
7.0
8.9
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS – LIV...
8.0
10
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PAUL McCARTNEY – McCARTNEY III
10
9.2
Latest Live Reviews
View All
 
Lord Huron

SPILL LIVE REVIEW: LORD HURON ALIVE FROM WHISPERING PINES: EPISODE 1 OF 4 (VIRTUAL EVENT)

by Robert Defina on January 7, 2021
57
 

SPILL LIVE REVIEW: WARDRUNA – ‘KVITRAVN’ PRESENTATION (ONLINE PERFORMANCE)

by Samantha Wu on December 10, 2020
70
 
Evanescence

SPILL LIVE REVIEW: EVANESCENCE @ ROCK FALCON STUDIO, NASHVILLE (TN)

by Melinda Welsh on December 5, 2020
41
 
Alice In Chains

SPILL LIVE REVIEW: MoPOP PRESENTS: ALICE IN CHAINS @ MUSEUM OF POP CULTURE, SEATTLE (WA)

by Gerrod Harris on December 1, 2020
52
 
Lowest Of The Low

SPILL LIVE REVIEW: LOWEST OF THE LOW @ LEE’S PALACE, TORONTO

by John Graham on November 28, 2020
1294
Tweets by @spillmagazine

SPILL MAGAZINE MENU
  • Home | The Spill Magazine
  • Premieres
  • Album Reviews
  • Books + Movies
  • Features
  • Live Reviews
  • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • News
  • Events
  • Entertainment Headlines
  • Concert Listings
  • Toronto Concert Venues
  • About Us
  • Contests
  • New Music
  • Spill Magazine Contributors
  • TOTD
  • Privacy Policy
  • The Scene Unseen
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2020 | The Spill Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

TRENDING RIGHT NOW
   
 
SPILL FEATURE: REMEMBERING LEX GORE: A SPILL MAGAZINE MEMORIAL – TRIBUTE BY SUSANA MEZA
2699
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JOHN LENNON – GIMME SOME TRUTH. THE ULTIMATE MIXES
640
 
SPILL FEATURE: THAT GOOD OLD FASHIONED RAZZMATAZZ – A CONVERSATION WITH DALLON WEEKES OF I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
585
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARY HOPKIN – ANOTHER ROAD
579
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT – LIVE AROUND THE WORLD
550
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PAUL McCARTNEY – McCARTNEY III
500
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ALTER BRIDGE – WALK THE SKY 2.0
497
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JON ANDERSON – 1000 HANDS
466
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: GUIDED BY VOICES – STYLES WE PAID FOR
452
 
SPILL FEATURE: TO FEEL OUR HUMANITY IN SOLIDARITY – A CONVERSATION WITH NINA HAGEN
441
 
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: CHURCH OF TREES FEAT. CAROLE POPE – “WORLD’S A BITCH”
365
 
SPILL FEATURE: GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME – A CONVERSATION WITH CINDY BLACKMAN SANTANA
358
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JOHN FOXX AND THE MATHS – HOWL
355
ENTERTAINMENT HEADLINES