In the company of friends and colleagues (but no other Elbows) he just turns the brass – an Elbow fixture – up to 11 every so often; or throws out a wiggy keyboard solo that takes its inspiration from Fela Kuti, as on Angela's Eyes.
He's no match for the hard-headed spooks who run the place, and he's no match for the military brass who are elbowing their way to more and more control of intelligence spending and priorities.
The moment the naysayers realize this, they shine the rust off their old brass knuckles, polish their elbow spikes, and head to the mall to battle the fat, globular masses.
Backed by a six-piece band that includes I Am Kloot bassist Pete Jobson on guitar, Garvey croons through an opening number, Three Bells, whose hymnal calm, parps of brass and wistful poetry are quintessential Elbow.
It seems bogus and misplaced, as does the attempt to lend exultancy to a similarly restrained version of Elbow's "Mirrorball" by the imposition of industrious brass and strings.
There are big brass stabs and motorik Krautrock grooves; Northern soul organs and Elbow-type massed male vocals.
But she could easily have been referring to the other materials she surrounds herself with — mirrors, brass lamps, tin molds, copper pots, many burnished by age and their owner's elbow grease.
Meanwhile, the melody of Weather to Fly is so indelible that, were it equipped with the requisite surging chorus, it might provide Elbow with a hit; displaying a certain winning cussedness, it is equipped instead with a brass band.
"The bench is deep," Ifill writes, "crammed elbow to elbow with mayors, state lawmakers and other rising stars poised to grab at the next brass ring".
Spanish Brass, brass quintet.
