Guy Garvey

Open The Door (Fiction)

[rating: 4/5]

Late last year Elbow front man Guy Garvey took a sabbatical from his lifelong musical cohorts to explore some new territory with a solo album. And while Courting the Squall did at times veer into familiar Elbowesque eloquence with Garvey’s whimsical “I’m just a working class lad out of sync with the world at large” poetic lyricism it did manage to avoid the grandeur of Elbow’s work. Indeed Courting the Squall eschewed the intricacy of Elbow’s arrangements for looser and more adventurous sonic detours that should have pleased Elbow’s fans none-the-less given the band’s unconventional approach to making popular music.

So with Elbow out of the picture for now (a new album is coming in 2017) Mr. Garvey continues to explore his fleeting new found freedom with another offering for the European summer. Not an album this time, just one song Guy says he was inspired to write as he shapes up for some festival performances, hence his claim that this song is one that “really gets the party started”.

Open The Door features the same players from his solo album and after an oddly mistimed count in lacking syncopation the song fires up with some understated horns and a swirling organ breaking into a kind of rhythmic urgency that wouldn’t be out of place as part of a 70’s blaxploitation film soundtrack. Open the Door not only gets the party started, but whets the appetite for what will follow.   

Trevor Jackson

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