Album reviews: Elbow | The Black Crowes | Gossip | Starless

The Black Crowes: Happiness Bastards (Silver Arrow Records) ***

Gossip: Real Power (Sony) ***

Starless: Returning Home (Last Night From Glasgow) ***

“Cool, really cool,” opines Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, overheard on an admittedly non-cool musical interlude on his band’s tenth album. It’s a fair assessment of the rest of Audio Vertigo, a sonically audacious contrast to its wistful, pandemic-inspired predecessor Flying Dream 1. If that album was a self-comforting retreat, this is the veteran band coming out swinging into the light, recovering their sense of scale without the bland quasi-anthemic fare on which they built their reputation.