Leaders of the Free World

It may have been born amid late night recording sessions and drained booze bottles (or rather, “Thinking/And sinking the wine,” as Guy Garvey snarls on “Picky Bugger”), but there’s a fierce clarity to Elbow’s third record. Whether paying heartmelting tribute to his friends (“Puncture Repair”) or savaging politicians (the title track), little escapes Garvey’s sharp eye. And what’s more, the sound—produced for the first time by pianist Craig Potter—is bigger and brawnier than ever.