Product Description

Epic post-rock tinged emotional indie stalwarts Elbow release their fourth album 'The Seldom Seen Kid', another staunchand anthemic collection of songs. The tense and emotional sound of previous records remains, but with a distinctly morecommercial riff-based template, particularly on lead single'Grounds For Divorce'. The band produced the record themselves, as with previous records, lending it a homespun qualitythat would be out of synch with any external influence. Revered by their peers as a reliably independent act, Elbow have created a subtly innovative extension of their sound and scope with 'The Seldom Seen Kid'.

Track Listing

1. Starlings
2. The Bones Of You
3. Mirrorball
4. Grounds For Divorce
5. An Audience With The Pope
6. Weather To Fly
7. The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver
8. The Fix - Elbow, Richard Hawley
9. Some Riot
10. One Day Like This
11. Friend Of Ours
12. We're Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 56 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
There are few things in life quite so liberating as the opening track on an Elbow album--they're like airlocks between the plainness of the outside world and the elaborate melancholic heave-ho that you are likely about to submerge yourself in. Following predecessors "Any Day Now", "Ribcage" and "Station Approach", "Starlings" opens their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid rising from a bed of tumbling electronic subtlety like a depressed Atari game loading up, adding bare touches of piano, glimpses of ambient guitar, out of body background vocals, an understated pulse and a wisp of strings, before--EXCELSIS!--a fanfare avalanche of horns crashes the gate and elevates things to gasping palatial heights, before Guy Garvey's inimitable gravel tone and wrenchingly poetic reinterpretations of the everyday announce their arrival proper. It's astonishing, by far the most progressive moment on the album and if anything it sets the bar too high. But even when the pace dips, and songs like "Mirrorball" and "Weather to Fly" don't distinguish themselves quite enough, their textural peerlessness remains. This is a beautiful sounding record. Their collaboration with Richard Hawley may be more of a curiosity than a thing of beauty, but the highs, the riffing cross-stitch of "Ground for Divorce", the desolate grandeur of "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" and the enlightened string-laden anthem "On a Day Like This" (like their own Sound of Music--only substitute the Alpine peaks for a Manchester high-rise) number amongst the best of their career. --James Berry

Customer Reviews

I LIKED IT
WHO SAID FAT MEN CANT SING, NON-COMERCIAL AND BRILLIANT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR BURYING THE PAST AND ITS DEAD BODYS AND PLANTING A FLOWER POT FULL ON THE GRAVESTONE WHILST TAKING A WIZZ.
HE HEE BYE.

Tribute
Being a fan of Elbow for many years now I feel the need to write this having being privileged to see them in concert at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on October 6th. Considering the concert had sold out before the Mercury Music Awards winners were announced Guy Garvey admitted he knew he was "Amongst Friends" and indeed he was. The set was immaculate ,inspiring , melodic , awe inspiring. The audience were singing along with every word with tears in their eyes sometimes just nodding their heads in gentle reflection that this was as good as it gets. Elbow are our mates, our friends, absolutely unassuming considering their recent successes . We felt part of an intimate experience. Guy said after each song " Are you all alright?" We were . When a lady fainted near the stage , how many bands would stop playing to ask her name , to check she was okay ? I felt exhilerated at the end after an encore of Newborn and Scattered Black and Whites that left the crowd perfectley satisfied . We shared their first night nerves and look forward to the next chance to share some time with our band, our mate, Guy. Never lose what you have got, its what makes you so special.
See you soon.

Bliss!
I have Amazon to thank for bringing Elbow to my attention many years ago. I bought some CD or other and they did their cheeky "if you like that, you might like this ..." and recommended Elbow's debut album Asleep in the Back. I did something I have never done before or since and bought the CD without hearing a note just because I liked their name. And I loved the CD. I then bought Cast of Thousands - Grace Under Pressure is sublime - and Leaders of the Free World and really enjoyed both. Seldom Seen Kid is different though. It is by far their finest work yet and easily the best album I've heard this year. The lyrics and Guy Garvey's voice are wonderful. Grounds for Divorce and One Day Like This are so good they give you shivers but Mirrorball is in a class of its own - pure bliss! I sincerely hope Elbow break the curse of the Mercury Music Prize and continue to produce music of this quality.