New Tunes Tuesday – Week 5 – Elbow, Mirrorball

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Back again – Week 5! I’m as amazed as you are that I’ve managed to keep this up for 5 weeks, but I genuinely enjoy sharing music with others, so here we are. This week, it’s an absolutely gorgeous song from Elbow – “Mirrorball”.


Elbow – Mirrorball

Elbow have been around for years now – and have a back catalogue of absolutely stunning tunes. But Mirrorball, for me, is my personal favourite. They formed in 1997, but for me, they peaked with “The Seldom Seen Kid” in 2008. Strangely, I didn’t actually stumble across Elbow until I was living in Cardiff, around 2010. More on that in a bit. Firstly, the song:

This is a live version of the song – and normally, I wouldn’t share a live version, because sometimes is doesn’t do the recorded track justice. But in this instance, and in every instance of Elbow performing, Guy Garvey sings it with absolute perfection. So, there it is.

As with most of Elbows work, and Guy Garvey solo work, it’s lyrically beautiful. I can’t emphasise how important it is for me that a song has lyrics with meaning, and not just words for the sake of it;

You make the moon our mirrorball
The street’s an empty stage
The city’s sirens; violins
Everything has changed

Elbow – Mirrorball

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t really know of Elbow until I was living in Cardiff. Not ashamed to admit, I was a huge “Skins” fan back then (I still am now, really) – and would watch every week without fail. First and second series were great, but for me, Skins became incredibly good in Season 3. The cast, the stories, and most importantly, the music!

If you haven’t watched Skins, then give it a go, it’s worth a pop. It follows the lives of a group of teenagers through college – and one episode, in Season 3, tells the story of twin sisters, Katy and Emily. As with all the songs in this series in specific, they are positioned perfectly throughout the show – hats off to the musical director here – and when Mirrorball plays, it’s just emotionally perfect. It’s hard to explain.

I used to chat to my friend Luke during each episode, and whenever the music started, we’d be discussing how perfect it was for that moment – and I’ll be honest, on many occasions, things got emotional!

Enough about Skins, though.

So yeah, check out Elbow, you’ll probably know them from the John Lewis Christmas advert they did – “Golden Slumbers“, the original being a Beatles track back in 1969. Another example of Guy Garvey being, just, incredible.


Pull up a chair, grab a coffee, and just relax for a minute. Whilst you’re there (and when you’ve exhausted Elbows back catalogue) – check out bands / artists such as Doves, Turin Brakes and Gomez, to name but a few.

You can also follow our New Tunes Tuesday playlist on Spotify, if you wanted a playlist of all the tracks we add over the coming weeks, or check out previous new tunes Tuesday posts.

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