Lovers' Leap

Album: Audio Vertigo (2024)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Lovers' Leap" jumps headfirst into the lore surrounding those tragically romantic cliffside locations – you know, the ones with a history of star-crossed lovers taking a final, fatal plunge.
  • Elbow frontman Guy Garvey delivers a story of a doomed couple so consumed by their love that they choose a dramatic exit together. As they fall, they leave their mark on the world by spraying graffiti on the ground below.

    "Lovers' leap is a nice pair of words and they have a big dramatic image attached," said Garvey to The Sun. "Why do we like the idea of people killing themselves for love?"
  • The creative spark for the boisterous track came from bassist Pete Turner and drummer Alex Reeves. They completed the song in the studio along with the other band members: Garvey, keyboardist Craig Potter and guitarist Mark Potter.

    "'Lover's Leap' began with a leap of faith from Pete Turner and Alex Reeves, Elbow's rhythm section," said Garvey. "And then I came up with that sort of spitty distorted horn line for a change – ended up me and Craig playing the melodica. Two big men playing a small instrument made the other guys laugh!"

    He added: "Mark then came up with this wild, almost unsettling outro with his guitar. It was a lot of fun exploring the darker side of the song with that."
  • "Lovers' Leap" has a music video directed by Henry Oliver and Justin Du Pre. Filmed entirely in black and white, it mirrors the song's narrative of star-crossed lovers. We see a woman in white and a man in black, each frantically running through the nighttime streets of London before their inevitable collision and fateful leap.
  • Elbow gave the song its TV debut on The Graham Norton Show on January 26, 2024.
  • "Lovers' Leap" is the lead single from Elbow's 10th studio album, Audio Vertigo. The band recorded the album throughout 2023 at various locations, including their own Migration Studios and London's The Dairy, and wrapped it up with mixing at their Blueprint Studios in Salford.
  • Audio Vertigo debuted at #1 on the UK albums chart. It was their fourth chart-topping album, following the successes of The Take Off And Landing Of Everything (2014), Little Fictions (2017), and Giants Of All Sizes (2019).

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