Album Review

Elbow – The Bones Of You

• 1st Oct 2008

“The Bones of You” is the second single from the Mercury Music Prize winning album “The Seldom Seen Kid”.

With this single, lyricist Guy Garvey transports the listener to the month of May. There’s something trance like about this song. The main body of the song is backed by acoustic guitar, percussion and vocal layers, maybe choral, accompanying the smooth voice of Guy Garvey. Lyrically you can understand why the band are now receiving the plaudits they richly deserve. The song takes a few listens to really appreciate the writing. “Drowning commitments like cats in a sack”, albeit wrong on a number of levels, is perfect in this song.

The song tempo builds to a crescendo at around 2 minutes, before dropping back to the more soothing tempo of the opening. It’s a simple arrangement, but beautifully orchestrated. The catchy repeating of “..and I’m 5 years ago, and 3000 miles away” maybe yearns for events of another time and place, but the band are here, they are now, and they have earned it.