Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys!/Jonsi - Go/Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

As I am moving in another register, here is a roundup of some of the pop music I have been listening to the last two weeks. Highlight was certainly the new Elbow album which I enjoyed very much. Stylistically, it's totally in the mould of previous albums but it comes with a distinctive, subdued atmosphere. There are few uptempo tracks and the rather frequent use of a backing choir gives the album an aura of mournful solidarity. Guy Garvey's grainy voice lends the music a beguiling earthbound quality. Beautiful lyrics too, that actually mean something. And what I like a lot is that these guys take their time. The opening track - The Birds - takes a full eight minutes to unfold. There's a touching reprise of this song in a simple arrangement with the voice of a senescent piano tuner (John Moseley) against the background of a humming choir. I guess this is the kind of album that takes time to mature. So it promises a lot of easy going listening pleasure.

Two other discs: Jonsi is Sigur Ros' frontman. A couple of weeks ago I listened to his ambient project Riceboy Sleeps, co-authored with his partner Alex Summer. Now Go (2010) is a solo endeavour. Not a bad album at all. Featherlight as pop comes, but with that distinctive, poetic Sigur Rosian flavour which I continue to enjoy. And admittedly the guy has a distinctive voice ...

Less enjoyable, in a way, was Sun Kil Moon's Ghosts (2003). No doubt it is a boon for amateurs of the Neil Young-like folk rock genre, but that's simply not my thing. So despite the intriguing, nasal soliloquys delivered by Mark Koselek on various boxers it failed to captivate me (the band itself was named after a Korean lightweight).