Product Description

Second album from Bury indie band Elbow and the follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut 'Asleep In The Back', which was released in 2001. A brooding melancholic indie rock band, who have drawn comparisons to Radiohead and who's influences range from Jeff Buckley through to Peter Gabriel. Includes the lead single 'Fallen Angel'.

Track Listing

1. ribcage
2. Fallen Angel
3. Fugitive Motel
4. Snooks (Progress Report)
5. Switching Off
6. Not A Job
7. I've Got Your Number
8. Buttons and Zips
9. Crawling With Idiot
10. Grace Under Pressure
11. Flying Dream 143

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 50 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
An astonishingly intense and ambitious album, Elbow's Cast of Thousands is relentlessly experimental. Having toiled for 10 years over their spellbinding Mercury-nominated debut Asleep in the Back, the maverick Bury five-piece--who were initially hailed as the new Radiohead--have produced a worthy sequel in a comparatively short two years. While mirroring their debut's melancholy tone, this album's romantic lyricism and uplifting harmonies inject a fresh dynamic.

From the first bar, Cast of Thousands is enthralling. "Ribcage", an exquisite rousing treasure, builds on a languorous and fragmented melody into a cohesive climax while Garvey listlessly intones (with a flat mic taped to his larynx) the charming mantra, "When the sunshine/ throwing me a lifeline/ finds its way in to my room/ all I need is you". Meanwhile, the London Community Gospel choir's spiralling harmonies echo Blur's "Tender" in its lo-fi, mellifluous majesty. But the majority of the album is far less grandiose with the haunting "Snooks (Progress Report)" and "I've Got Your Number" bristling with an unnerving intimacy and brooding dialogue. It's an enchanting return that finds Elbow stretching from despair to lovelorn tenderness. --Christopher Barrett

Customer Reviews

Love It
Elbow have written and performed some of the best music this century (IMO). Beautiful ballads & catchy tunes,

Favourite Tracks: Fugitive Motel & Grace Under Pressure

Drab, seven thousand shades of grey
The music lacks drive and composure. It drifts seamlessly from one 2-demensional number to another, there are no gates of pleasure, no emotions other than the drab. Too many influences, too much historical rhetoric and too little raw edge - seems to fit with the UK music image, all pretty petticoats and no balls.

Moving Rock But Probably Not Everyone's Bag
It'd been my experience that the more you listen to Elbow, the better they get. When I was given their first album Asleep In The Back, I just had it on in the background while I read a book. Didn't really think too much about it considering how much my flatmate hyped them up. I liked the first track alright but it didn't throw me out of the chair. A week later I listened to it again but this time I really listened to it. "Hey! This is pretty good," I thought and listened to it twice more that day. I liked it more each time. The new album is made the same way. The first time I listened to it I didn't think it was as good as their first. Then I listened to it again and again and so will you.

It sounds a bit more polished than Asleep but is just as moving and it's a bit more psychedelic but just as powerful. Although Elbow sounds relatively familiar, they have a fairly timeless sound, not borrowing too heavily from any one decade's influences. While the first album tended to have a few more all out rock moments, Cast Of Thousands sees Garvey and company matured to a more composed and collected form. Their power lies in their simplicity...but it's pretty much pointless to try to fully explain the movement of Elbow. Their work just needs to be felt. Imagine that! Feelings still exist some 20 years after Satan launched his own channel, MTV. In the words of the Glastonbury 2002 crown at the end of "Grace Under Pressure," an amazingly moving song, "we still believe in love so f**k you!"