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Apr 11, 2011Build a Rocket Boys! knows when to push forward and when to pull back, and its songs find the accessibility in out-of-the-box thinking without alienating either side of Elbow's audience.
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Mar 18, 2011It's no slight to say the record's distinguishing quality is the one Elbow has had since the beginning, an honest humanity that's imperfect but can be appreciated if you live with it.
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UncutMar 29, 2011In short, it's a quietly beautiful record: anthemic but not bombastic, introspective yet universal, simply drawn but beautifully coloured in. [Apr 2011, p.82]
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Mar 22, 2011Details make Build a Rocket Boys! warrant repeat listenings, requiring that you pay attention and remember what you experience.
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MojoApr 14, 2011As with earlier records, Build A Rocket Boys! is touched by ambitious, intuitive invention. [Apr. 2011, p. 92]
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Q MagazineMar 9, 2011It's simply another excellent Elbow record. [March 2011, p. 98]
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Mar 11, 2011Specifically speaking, Elbow have retained their crowns as everyman kings.
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Mar 10, 2011In their own, low key, understated way, Elbow continue to beguile and impress.
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Apr 12, 2011The emotional pallet may be lightened, but once again Elbow still manages to break hearts, even as their own remain intact.
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Mar 8, 2011Too old to have their heads turned by mainstream success, but too big-hearted, maybe too grateful, to spurn it with a churlish how-do-you-like-us-now gesture, Build a Rocket Boys! sees Elbow doing perhaps the smartest thing you could under the circumstances: carrying on regardless.
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Mar 8, 2011In an industry that so often seems dizzily preoccupied with a desire for the shock of the new, real or wilfully imagined, we should be grateful that a bunch of steady-goers like Elbow have continued to perfect their craft and simultaneously achieve such acclaim and recognition.
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Apr 12, 2011It isn't the type of album that will easily find its way into the hearts of those in need of a quicker, simpler fix.
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Mar 8, 2011Expansive yet intimate, ornate yet seductive, this is capital-A Art rock without pretense, but with tremendous heart.
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Apr 11, 2011This is an artfully conceived and executed, heartfelt and evocative work, and I suspect it's precisely the kind of album Garvey and his mates wanted to make, and in the U.K. - where it was released in early March - the reviews have been uniformly rhapsodic.
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Mar 23, 2011The band didn't set out to create a hit-laden album that repeats the successes of their past. Instead, they've crafted an album full of beautifully lush melodies, intricate patterns, and soaring vocalizations.
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Mar 11, 2011Beautifully produced and blessed with Guy Garvey in fine voice, it's a small but perfectly formed step forward.
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Mar 11, 2011Since The Seldom Seen Kid's release it seems everyone and everyone's mum are now fans of the band. Though Build A Rocket Boys! is a strong album, it never quite matches the rampant grace of that record and in many ways caters to their more tested demographic.
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Mar 14, 2011The air of exultant expectation recollected in tranquility pervades the entire album, with Garvey confiding memories and misgivings to the natural world in "The River" and "The Birds", the latter appointed "the keepers of our secrets", while the former ultimately washes them out to the west-facing sea.
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Mar 16, 2011Build a Rocket Boys! sounds very much like an Elbow record, but it doesn't sound like any Elbow record we've heard before.
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Sep 13, 2011There are too many golden slumbers ("The Night Will Always Win"), and since the snapping and grandiose arrangement of "High Ideals" passes for the pulse quickener on Rocket, tempo could vary more, as it does in the banging build of "Open Arms," another British best in any decade.
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Mar 8, 2011They continue to make music that sounds like it cares how you are.
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Mar 14, 2011This is not the work of a band prepared to make a song and dance to keep everyone interested, but one happy to build something good from not a lot and hope you like it.
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Mar 21, 2011Whereas previous Elbow records set a mood, Build A Rocket Boys! may require a certain mood, and a few spins, before the lofty expectations are shed and you're left delighting in its radiance.
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Mar 10, 2011Their last album, The Seldom Seen Kid, managed the rare feat of winning the Mercury prize and huge public affection. So how do Elbow follow it? With continued greatness and without fuss.
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Apr 7, 2011This fifth studio album is a humbly gorgeous collection, propelling an already dynamic band into even more dramatic, heart-wrenching territory.
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Mar 9, 2011Commendably, the Bury band's fifth album doesn't see them chasing the mainstream or pandering to the ear of the daytime radio dilettante.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 50 out of 58
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Mixed: 5 out of 58
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Negative: 3 out of 58
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Apr 12, 2011
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Mar 14, 2011
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Jun 30, 2011