Long-running Manchester band Elbow just released their 10th album, AUDIO VERTIGO, which adds a few new colors to their palette, most notably horns. It’s their most inspired album since 2008’s Mercury Prize-winning The Seldom Seen Kid and one of the best in their discography. Read our review of the album and you can listen to it below.
While Elbow only sound like Elbow at this point in their career, AUDIO VERTIGO still incorporates a wide range of influences. “We referenced The Meters, Beastie Boys, Sly and Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Arctics, Queens of the Stone Age, Bolan, Tom Waits, Public Enemy and Alison Moyet,” says Garvey. “That’s just the opening song.” On that note, we asked Guy to make us a list of his Top 10 all-time favorite albums and in true rock fashion he sent us 11, including LPs from a couple of the artists referenced above. Like his lyrics, Garvey’s commentary is thoughtful and full of self-effacing humor.
Read his list below.
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GUY GARVEY’S 11 FAVORITE ALBUMS
1. Catalpa – Jolie Holland
It’s a bedroom record by one of my favorite singer-songwriters (I believe it’s Tom Waits’ favorite record!). She’s as real as they come, and all the mistakes, warts and all, are left on this record. She’s from a different time. There’s so much heart in it, and to meet Jolie, she’s such a naturally shy, lovely person. But there’s a riot in her heart and her voice has me climbing the walls. My favorite moment, in “All the Morning Birds” she achieves an impossibly high, fluty note that sounds just like a songbird. And immediately after, coughs up the frog in her throat that made it possible. All of that left on the recording. Cool as fuck.
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2. There’s a Riot Goin On – Sly and the Family Stone
When I met the band, I was already into this record. I haven’t stopped listening to it yet. He famously had guests over to the studio to layer on top of recordings, and then removed them after they’d left. These are hissy, broken, amazing sessions full of heart and soul. My favorite track, “Thank You for Talkin’ to Me, Africa,” which is an extended, slowed down, jammed version of “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” It’s impossibly cool, impossibly lazy and the sound of my teen years. Elbow still listen to it before going on stage.
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3. Come Down – The Dandy Warhols
We were listening to this record (among others), while writing our first album. People are divided on The Dandy Warhols, after that less than flattering documentary about their relationship with The Brian Jonestown Massacre. It’s not fair to put young musicians on film for all time. Their stuff is bold, and hooky and repetitive in a beautifully hypnotic way. I saw them live twice, completely in silhouette both times. Cool bastards. Favorite moment – the wacky vocal sound on “Minnesoter” that makes it truly harebrained.
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4. A Different Ship – Here We Go Magic
These are amazing players, under the guidance of a truly inventive, artistic frontman and leader. And produced by Nigel Godrich, who as we know, is a genius. That this album isn’t much better known, is a complete mystery to me. It’s wistful, gentle, clever—sonically, incredibly sophisticated and very, very, very upstate New York cool. Favorite moment, can’t have a drink on a long-haul flight without listening to “Over the Ocean.”
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5. Sky at Night – I Am Kloot
I co-produced this record with Craig [Potter] from Elbow, so I won’t draw your attention to the excellent production and string arrangements [laughs]. Just listen to [John] Bramwell’s songwriting. It’s extraordinary. They’re very old friends of mine, but I know them because of their music. It got Mercury-nominated by the way [laughs].
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6. Murmur – R.E.M.
It could have been any number of their records, but this is the one, it seems, I come back to time after time. When I was 18, all of my friends that aren’t in Elbow, left for university on the same weekend. I genuinely consider it my first heartbreak, and listening to the song ‘Perfect Circle,’ weeping alone in my shit office job, made this record a friend for life. There’s nobody like Stipe for lyrics.
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7. For the Roses – Joni Mitchell
She’s always been there. She was my exotic American auntie. Then she was my older sister’s best friend. Then she was the songwriter I wanted to be. Then, as I’ve gotten older than her records, and I see some of the naivety in her early work, she’s become my little sister, and all the time, an absolute mother to me. This is the greatest heartbreak record ever written. She wrote it on her own, in a log cabin. It has everything! She begs him to come back. She tries to tempt him with sex to come back. She curses him to hell—see the lyric “drive your bargains, push your papers, win your medals, fuck your strangers. Doesn’t it leave you on the empty side?” And at the end of the record, she reminds herself (and you!) that she’s a woman of heart and mind. The resignation of that song is so real. The end of every heartbreak I’ve ever had, is when I get bored of myself.
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8. Far East Suite – Duke Ellington
Recommended to me by the drummer from Here We Go Magic when I met him 12 years ago. Peter [Hale] is a wonderful man and the first words from his mouth were, ‘Man, have you tripped on Duke Ellington?’ I said ‘Yes?’ He said, ‘Have you tripped on the Far East Suite?’ I said ‘No.’ He said, ‘Then you haven’t tripped on Duke Ellington.’ [Laughs] It was written about a tour of the Middle East, but it’s them at the absolute height of their powers. The coolest band. THE coolest band there ever was, playing at the height of their cool.
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9. Lost Souls – Doves
They were from Manchester, so we knew who Doves were. We got a copy of their demos, as our managers were friends, and we were listening to the demos for Lost Souls when we were making our first album. The combination of these three boys working together, is to this day rooted in the hills of Lancashire; everything that’s majestic about that landscape, everything tarnished about the sacked North, everything magnificent about the Celtic roots. And everything that’s from the hip cool about the city I love. These guys are our big brothers.
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10. Frank’s Wild Years – Tom Waits
I had to include a Tom Wait’s record, because he’s my favorite lyricist. I’ve started writing in character—the character’s loosely based on parts of my own psyche and experience, but definitely encouraged by the work of this man. This is him at the height of having fun with those characters. Friend goes to New York to make his fortune, and ends up in the gutter, yelling at the moon. Between you and me, every time we play a show, I pretend Tom Waits is in the audience.
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11. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber
This is the sound of two people in love, making a state-of-the-art, art rock record. It’s absolutely unparalleled, by them or anyone else. It has to be heard to be believed.
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Elbow have UK and EU tour dates later this spring:
ELBOW – 2024 TOUR DATES:
04 MAY 2024 O2 CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE
05 MAY 2024 CONNEXIN LIVE, HULL
07 MAY 2024 BRIGHTON CENTRE
09 MAY 2024 THE O2, LONDON
10 MAY 2024 RESORTS WORLD ARENA, BIRMINGHAM
11 MAY 2024 OVO HYDRO, GLASGOW
12 MAY 2024 FIRST DIRECT ARENA, LEEDS
14 MAY 2024 CO-OP LIVE, MANCHESTER
15 MAY 2024 MOTORPOINT ARENA, NOTTINGHAM
07 JUNE 2024 DREAMLAND, MARGATE
01 JULY 2024 TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
21 JULY 2024 ENGLEFIELD HOUSE, BERKSHIRE
26 JULY 2024 LUDLOW CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE
04 AUG 2024 AUDLEY END, SAFFRON WALDEN
08 SEP 2024 CIRQUE ROYAL, BRUSSELS
09 SEP 2024 KONINKLIJK THEATER, AMSTERDAM
10 SEP 2024 KONINKLIJK THEATER, AMSTERDAM
11 SEP 2024 CIRQUE ROYAL, BRUSSELS