Leaders of the Free World

by

Elbow

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I can't believe that Elbow are so unknown. I only bought "Cast of Thousands", their second album, when I heard one track ("Fallen Angel") on a movie soundtrack, and then was hooked. "Leaders of the Free World", their third album, is even better.

While Cast of Thousands was mostly pretty mellow, Leaders of the Free World mixes very touching emotional moments with some good crunching rock, often in the same song! Listen to "Station Approach", as an example. A superbly-layered slowly building-then-exploding epic.

Comparisons with Radiohead are justified. The similarities with Radiohead's "The Bends" are there - the crunchy rock riffs, the emotionally charged lyrics, the wrenching vocals.

Other artists worth comparing to include Peter Gabriel, for the similarity of lyrics and vocals, Joy Division, for their post-modern punk edginess, and Coldplay. This is what Coldplay would sound like if they ditched their mainstream sound and added a bit more thought and edginess to their lyrics and music.