Song 59: One Day Like This

One Day Like This - Elbow

Sport and music do mix, though sometimes not quite in the way that people like me who love both things to the core of their being would like. I've despaired at the number of utterly admirable athletes who have been asked their playlist/inspirational music and said the key to their magnificent gold-medal winning performance was either 'Eye of the Tiger' or ''You Raise Me Up'. Just as one will tend to discover sportspeople's political beliefs, such as they are, usually veer in the direction you'd hope they wouldn't, and when you think about it, that's entirely logical, so it is with their musical taste. You might get the odd Leighton Baines or Pat Nevin, kings of footballing indie cool, but generally, let's keep it uplifting, let's keep it inspirational, shall we?

So you want uplifting, inspirational? Elbow seem to be the band. Elbow seem to be a sports band, initially through thousands of sporting montages (I mean thousands ... I watch A LOT of sport, and I know), and latterly through their coronation as "band of the people" in 2012, when they performed two songs at the Olympic Opening Ceremony and composed the BBC's Olympic theme song.

And it was 'One Day Like This' that made it so - the second last song on their Mercury-winning 2008 album 'The Seldom Seen Kid' - this big, positive anthemic hymn of a song, which drew so many hundreds of thousands of people to Elbow that I'm sure they couldn't give a monkeys that its grandiosity and obviousness and Coldplavity put it beyond the pale for a small enclave of music fans.

Well, I like it. I still like it. I've always liked Elbow. Ironically, when I first heard them in 2000/2001, being mentioned in the same breath as Coldplay, I was turned off them a little because they weren't anthemic/obvious enough. 'Any Day Now' was, I think, their first song to get radio play, and it seemed oddly static, oddly menacing, not warm and soaring. So I wasn't entirely sure about them at the start, though it didn't take me too long to be won over - there were several fine songs on that first Mercury-nominated album, my favourite being 'Scattered Black and Whites'.

Indeed, some people (i.e. me) might say that they haven't really topped that first album. Equally, the same people (yes, that's me) would say that none of their albums are much worse than it either. I'd say that may be the very thing about Elbow - startling consistency. All of their albums are very, very good, but perhaps none of them stand out as absolute classics. The fact that it's 'Seldom Seen Kid' that has the Mercury Prize is pure twist of fate, I think.

Consistency is not be sniffed at (watch me not mention Ryan Giggs now, though how many Ryan Giggs compilations do you think there are on youtube soundtracked by 'One Day Like This'). Elbow work painstakingly over each album and have as yet not failed to produce the goods. And they are not, altogether not, a band to be defined by the huge sentiment of 'One Day Like This'.

I've seen them close a festival set to 20,000ish people with 'One Day Like This' and it certainly is a song for huge crowds - that's its point. And I suppose what might be objected to about it. This wasn't Elbow's first "big crowd" song. 'Grace Under Pressure' from their second album 'Cast of Thousands' involves a recording of their Glastonbury crowd singing "We still believe in love, so fuck you" and perhaps this was the germ of 'One Day Like This', how Elbow became a BIG band - festivals give bands who oughtn't really be playing for vast numbers the opportunity to do so, and why then, shouldn't they harness and embrace that power? There isn't that much great popular music which is actually best served by being played to tens of thousands (just ask the Beatles) but since some bands do end up playing to that many, shouldn't they develop their style so that it works for those kind of numbers (just ask the Rolling Stones). Surely this is U2's only conceivable excuse.

So, Elbow wrote a big song, and it got as big as they hoped. And since then they've written one or two more big songs, but, you know, not that many. 'One Day Like This' lacks what a lot of other Elbow songs have - whether its space, sharpness or surprise. If you know Elbow's back catalogue, you know that they have a lot more of those things than you might think.

Elbow have a few secret, or not at all secret weapons 1. they're a really good band. They've been playing together for about 20 years. They're as expert in the studio as on stage 2. Guy Garvey has a really nice voice. Doesn't he? 3. Guy Garvey writes really good lyrics. I think so. He constructs some lovely lines. He's spare and subtle usually. 'One Day Like This' is not typical. 4. Guy Garvey has an endearing personality which has made him an alternative personality and heartthrob. Good for him. So, Elbow have got rather massive, but impressively, the album that followed 'The Seldom Seen Kid', 'Build a Rocket Boys' in no way stepped up the anthem factor, indeed was probably sparer and quieter in general.

I thought I'd do a little Elbow playlist to lure you in, though actually they're so consistent, that picking ten standouts was rather tricky.

Ribcage
Red
Scattered Black and Whites
Lippy Kids

Asleep in the Back
Starlings
Switching Off
Fugitive Motel


Leaders of the Free World
The Everthere


I might go for that if it was just 10, though there are at least another 10. I've tended towards the quieter, sadder songs. If you really want a standout, try 'Switching Off', which John Cale named as one of his Desert Island Discs.

So, Elbow, they've become a sport band, but if any band is to be played over montages to inspire us to deeds of derring-do, I'd rather it was this bunch of sensitive skilled souls than plenty others I can think of.