54. Elbow – “Giants of All Sizes”

Now that’s better! Elbow have turned around a worryingly downward spiral by releasing their best record since 2005’s “Leaders of the Free World” (yes it is better than that bloody album). Having spent ten years releasing variations on that bloody record, they have decide to take another tack. “Giants of all Sizes” sees them align very Elbow lyrics (downbeat, maudlin but sprinkled with dark mancunian humour) with very un-Elbow music. In fact, if anything there is a return to the understated Prog of their stunning second record, “Cast of Thousand”. The whole album feels like the band has suddenly realised that not all songs need to sound like rips off of that bloody track and that they are capable of writing subtle low-key masterpieces as well as big booming anthems to soundtrack gold medal wins.