Elbow will drop their forthcoming album Audio Vertigo on March 22 via Polydor/GEFFEN, Ahead the LP’s arrival, the UK band has shared “Balu,”
The track shares shares much musical DNA with the wider album; a focus on rhythm, a willingness to experiment with new sounds, and a love of beats that reflects the freedom the band felt throughout the recording process. Arriving alongside the new song, an official music video for “Balu.”

Paired with the track release, elbow unveiled a short film directed by Henry Oliver and Justin Du Pre. The short takes inspiration from the song’s lyrical interrogation of our fascination with doomed romance in a song which began, according to singer and lyricist Guy Garvey, with “the image of star crossed lovers tumbling through the air”. We follow two individuals running through the London streets at night before finding each other and leaping to….well, that would be telling.

Like the album from which it is taken, ‘Lovers’ Leap’ is rhythmically driven, musically diverse, restlessly innovative, and designed, in singer Guy Garvey’s words, “not to reflect but distract from the bad things happening in the world. We found seedy, gnarly grooves playing in back rooms and those pulled some dark memories and plenty of humor from me.” On an album that saw all members work in smaller groups to develop the songs that would form the record, ‘Lovers’ Leap’ began with bassist Pete Turner and drummer Al Reeves working together.

Audio Vertigo was recorded throughout 2023 at the band’s individual studios, Migration Studios, Gloucestershire, and finalized at the band’s facility at Blueprint Studios, Salford. In the words of lead singer and lyricist Guy Garvey, Audio Vertigo was built from “gnarly, seedy grooves created by us playing together in garagey rooms,” and is both more direct and sonically varied by purpose than its predecessor.

The wide screen ambition doesn’t end with the music. Guy delivers a lyrical sweep that considers our obsession with star crossed lovers, admonishes, and forgives his self-delusion, puzzles the nature of loss in a digital age, and narrates a real-life knife fight, all the while finding friends, real and imagined, and experiences, genuine and mythical, along the way.

Elbow
Audio Vertigo
Tracklisting

Things I’ve Been Telling Myself for Years
Lovers’ Leap
(Where Is It?)
Balu
Very Heaven
Her to the Earth
The Picture
Poker Face
Knife Fight
Embers of Day
Good Blood Mexico City
From the River

Pre-order Audio Vertigo by Elbow HERE