If you followed Elbow during the early days of the pandemic, you saw the British band create “elbow rooms” online but in real-time. It was new, quieter versions of their older songs, recorded separated by lockdowns but connected via Zoom. They remained busy through 2020 releasing acoustic album “Live at the Ritz.” Flying Dream 1 is all-new material, though the songs are in this same lullaby-like vein, with woodwinds and brushed drumming. Elbow spent lockdown sending each other musical sketches, or “little love notes,” as vocalist Guy Garvey has described them. The band apparently doesn’t talk or chat about anything personal when it’s not in the studio recording, instead keeping up with each other via the music itself.

These missives became the collection of songs that is Flying Dream 1. What’s missing on this album are the big orchestral songs that usually balance out the less-showy numbers on Elbow records; songs like “One Day Like This,” “Mirrorball” or “Magnificent (She Said).” Everything here is largely unobtrusive like the band members are still whispering to each other in lockdown.

Many songs on Flying Dream 1, including the title track, go back to Guy Garvey’s favorite well: memories of his childhood in Manchester. He mentions “Holcombe and Pendle, Nelson and Colne,” towns in England, in between a hazy memory of going out in the snow. “Step into the air, step into the air,” Garvey sings soothingly on the closest Elbow comes to a hook on this album. There are no big belters here like we know Garvey is capable of. Garvey’s voice, while as beautiful as ever, does not soar like the desperate romantic he often is.

There are still romantic songs, of course. “Six Words” is a song about the phrase “I’m falling in love with you,” as a sentiment both expressed and returned. Halfway through the track, though, some prog-rock keyboards come in, followed by some female backing singers who steal the show. “You bring my hand to my heart/ You fling all my plans to the wind/ You wrote me a better part,” Garvey sings, suddenly in full wedding-song mode. This second half could have been one of the anchor songs this album needed if it had been spun off on its own. As it is, it rises to a mild crescendo and fades out just when it’s getting good.

Next comes “Calm and Happy,” with such light percussion and gentle vocals from Garvey that it plays like you’re listening to something light enough for dozing on a gloomy afternoon. Then there’s “Red Sky Radio (Baby Baby Baby),” where Garvey’s vocalizing blends right into the dark and dramatic arrangement and an ensuing minute-long interlude. He comes back calling out about how he loved a woman but no longer sees a pair of golden gates welcoming the two.

Another standout track, “The Seldom Seen Kid,” is named a bit confusingly (Elbow’s Mercury-prize winning 2008 album was called The Seldom Seen Kid), but it imagines a meeting between Garvey’s now-wife, actress Rachael Stirling, and friend and musician Bryan Glancy, who died suddenly in 2006. Thus, the two never met. The singer noted how sentimental it would have been for him to see his best friend dance with the woman he loved and how he wished he could’ve witnessed it. The song starts with some jazzy drumming, followed by clarinet. The vocals arrive nearly a minute in. The lyrics don’t paint quite as vivid a picture as Garvey’s lyrics often do, but “He’d steal you for dancing/ And you’d lеnd him your arms/ And I’d stooge for your laughing/ And you’d twirl in a chaos of charm,” is still enough to get the job done.

“Your eyes are a diabolical blue,” Garvey sings during the opening verse of the final track, “What Am I Without You,” where a repetitive electric piano hits repeatedly. Things make one final dramatic turn, paring back to primarily piano and ending on a highly somber note.

Fans who enjoyed the harder edge of some tracks on 2019’s Dexter and Sinister (the sound of which harkened back to the band’s 2008 hit “Grounds for Divorce”) might be disappointed by this quiet, understated album, which comes and goes without making much of a fuss. However, Flying Dream 1 will likely please those who prefer Elbow’s quieter moments, such as “Scattered Black and Whites” from 2001’s Asleep in the Back, and their more recent acoustic work.