Audio Vertigo

The tenth album, shorter and beat-led, co-written by Alex Reeves as he became a full member.
Elbow, 2024

Released
22 March 2024
Studio
Blueprint Studios, Salford; Migration Studios, Gloucestershire; The Dairy Studios, Brixton; Cloakie Cloakie, Norwood; Reevsey's Drum Studio, London; the Elbow Rooms
Label
Polydor
Producer
Craig Potter

The band agreed on shorter songs that focused on beats. Alex Reeves began by making drum patterns with Craig Potter in his home studio, and the band spent two weeks writing at Migration Studios in Gloucestershire before finishing at Blueprint in Salford. With the main room booked out they played together in a smaller one, which Garvey said made the riffs very simple. He cited Beastie Boys, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and the Meters. Her to the Earth borrows the drum pattern of Talk Talk's Happiness Is Easy, Balu takes its name from Garvey's nephew's nickname, and Good Blood Mexico City is an homage to Taylor Hawkins.

The album entered at number one, the band's fourth, and averages 86 on Metacritic from eleven reviews. The Guardian's Dave Simpson praised the African-inspired rhythms and the darkly humorous lyrics, and said Knife Fight came from an incident Garvey saw in a cafe in Istanbul. The Audio Vertigo Echo EP followed in June 2025.

Track listing

  1. Things I've Been Telling Myself for Years
  2. Lovers' Leap
  3. (Where Is It?)
  4. Balu
  5. Very Heaven
  6. Her to the Earth
  7. The Picture
  8. Poker Face
  9. Knife Fight
  10. Embers of Day
  11. Good Blood Mexico City
  12. From the River

Personnel

More from Elbow

Asleep in the Back (2001), Cast of Thousands (2003), Leaders of the Free World (2005), The Seldom Seen Kid (2008), Build a Rocket Boys! (2011), The Take Off and Landing of Everything (2014), Little Fictions (2017), Giants of All Sizes (2019)

Sources

  1. Audio Vertigo, Wikipedia
  2. Elbow: Audio Vertigo review, The Guardian (2024-03-22)
  3. Audio Vertigo (vinyl release), Discogs