Album Review: Lost Worker Bee [EP] by Elbow

The Lost Worker Beound of Elbow taking stock of their improbable (though highly deserved) ascent from U.K. indie also-rans to stadium-headlining behemoths, delving into new textures and ideas, yet still recalling the sort of subtle wonderment that made their early records so rich and rewarding. Lead single "Lost Worker Bee" is a perfect blend of their early polyrhythms and their more-recent anthemic glories—shot through with trumpets and glorious flourishes rising high to almost drown Guy Garvey's cries.

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For all of the things that make Elbow‘s music so pleasingly complicated—frontman Guy Garvey’s lyrical loquaciousness, a penchant for intricately composed tunes—there’s a homespun simplicity at the emotional core of the band. Though the city of Manchester has given the world many rock legends, including the Smiths and Oasis, few if any groups apart from Elbow have worn their heritage in the Northern English city with such pride. Any time Garvey sings about going home, a childlike enthusiasm for the past lingers strongly.

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Review Summary: No real buzz here. The last time English alt rockers Elbow found it necessary to release an EP, they had just been dropped by their label. Fortunately, the five-piece were quickly picked up by local independent label Ugly Man Records, with whom they soon released the excellent Noisebox, Newborn, and Any Day Now EPs.

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“When we won the Mercury I was walking down the street and this car slowed and the window wound down,” Guy Garvey told The Guardian in 2011. “I was semi-expecting something, because it was two days after we’d won it, and this guy just went: ‘Oi, Elbow! Get a fucking proper job! That’s a compliment in Manchester.” That’s one of the things that’s always separated Elbow from much of the rest of the Manchester pack - a genuine affection for the city. The Smiths were plenty referential, but Morrissey’s lyrics were often laced with a sardonic quality that, admittedly, is not in short supply in that corner of the world.

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