ELBOW
Asleep in the Back
(V2)
Since the advent of Radiohead as a worldwide cultural force in rock, the hunt has been on for the next icon to revel in passionate catharsis. Thom Yorke and company made it safe to not only wallow in one's self-imposed agony, but to do it with more than a modicum of musical skill. We expect our self-flagellators to be able to play their instruments; more importantly, we expect to them to actually be able to sing. Like any musical mini-movement, the combination of one popular band's singular vision and a mass audience's desire for that vision to be endlessly recycled has led to the signing of scores of likeminded (to put it kindly) artists. Whether those artists were inspired by Radiohead's fearless baring of its musical soul or its rapidly expanding bank account is up to the fans to decide.

At first blush, Manchester's Elbow fits into the Radiohead clone file. Give its debut album Asleep in the Back anything more than a cursory listen, however, and you'll discover it to be substantially different from the overwrought hordes. The quintet keeps its arrangements tight but not insular, allowing plenty of air to move through its carefully placed layers of guitars and keyboards. Progressive rock is an obvious, and acknowledged, influence, though technique is never the focus. Singer Guy Garvey has a husky troll that conveys deeply felt emotions with an air of enlightened resignation; he never indulges in the kind of roaring overkill that Yorke has made famous. And even though the tempos move back and forth between a crawl and a slow trot, drummer Richard Jupp never sits still, giving the rhythm a constant push forward. Inertia is as alien to this band as melodrama.

The album revolves around two concepts: the thin line between pleasure and pain in love and the social politics of a small town environment. The latter is dealt with most explicitly in the British hit "Any Day Now," as over a percolating rhythm track Garvey contemplates escape from a stifling city where he's "Got a lot of spare time/Some of my youth and all of my senses in overdrive." The harshly percussive "Little Beast" looks at the rise of bullies in a place where "Fear is not respect/Correct/But it's the best you're gonna get," and those same kids go confidently looking for love in the industrial-kissed "Bitten By the Tail-Fly," apparently unaware of their complete lack of empathic qualifications. The most chilling tune is the elegiac ballad "Powder Blue," which examines the codependent relationship of a pair of junkies. "I'm proud to be the one you hold when the shakes begin," Garvey croons over one of the album's prettiest melodies.

Love enters the equation from several directions. Garvey accepts the role of "Best disheveled lover three years running" as he tries to hold a failing relationship together in the seething, noise-ridden "Coming Second." He vacillates between tentative allegations ("Were you crushed/Did I rush you?") and bold declarations ("My twisted heart is yours") on the beautiful title track. He warns a potential lover about a would-be predator in "Don't Mix Your Drinks," though he does so for his own self-interest. "Newborn," one of the record's catchiest songs, takes a hard look at romance from the point of view of an elderly couple facing terminal illness. "Scattered Black and Whites" attempts to find solace in memories of family, while "Red" moves through the conflicting feelings of new parenthood, as Garvey notes that the child is both "perfect just as you are" and "a tragedy starting to happen."

Elbow tempers its bleak visions with music that sounds like widescreen arena rock with the wind knocked out of it. Nearly every song could be blown up into a lighter-waving anthem, but instead the band keeps the heat on simmer, inducing its audience to break into an uncomfortable sweat without offering any relief. We keep waiting for Garvey to let loose with a full-throated wail; he never does, and the tracks are all the more powerful for his restraint. Elbow clearly offers catharsis on Asleep in the Back, but we have to work for it. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden, Catherine Wheel, Peter Gabriel