Elbow – Lost Worker Bee

Next year, Elbow will be celebrating their 25^th anniversary, and if this latest EP is anything to go by, the band is as inventive and fresh as ever. This experimental foursome of songs was inspired by the band’s hometown of Manchester and is designed, according to band member Guy Garvey, to “tide fans over” until they have finished working on their next album. Not a format which suits everyone – however, the music will do just that.

The title track, Lost Worker Bee, is typical of the band in modern times, with its more joyous perspective of the humdrum. The surging of brass underpins the track and gives it a real homely quality, guiding the faster-paced synthesizers into really delivering a skip-in-your-step kind of feeling. And It Snowed instantly conjures up images of winter with its hanging piano chords vibrating across the track, accompanied by Guy Garvey’s vocals to help bring a feeling of warmth to the somewhat bleaker lyrics.

Roll Call delivers a frenetic six-minute drum march through monotonously unified calls of “roll call”, and gives the sense of ceaseless movement and familiarity through the mundane grind of life. The more melancholic, but nevertheless uplifting, Usually Bright brings listeners to what feels like a tender portrait of reality. Its beautifully elegant lyrics are allowed to stand bare yet are elevated further by the floating piano, gracefully followed by a gentle acoustic strum.

These four songs highlight what keeps the band fresh, and fans excited for more material through the years: each one has a completely different sound. It is as though each song is telling its own individual story, resonating with an old-fashioned, northern cultivation, influenced by the band’s love of Manchester. Even after a quarter of a century, Elbow continue to flourish with their understated brilliance.

Sean Robinson

Lost Worker Bee is released on 24^th July 2015, for further information or to order the album visit here.

Watch the video for Lost Worker Bee here: