The Seldom Seen Kid - Music (Elbow)

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 of The Seldom Seen Kid

Mr. Samuel Chew

8th October 2008

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.

stevechad1
uk
8th October 2008

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.

ghostmoth
Isle of Wight, UK
5th October 2008

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.

P. Bennett
Southend, Essex, England
3rd October 2008

Simply a great album.
I was recommended this by a chap who went to school with Guy Garvey. He couldn't praise it enough, although I did wonder how partisan he was...Then I heard "Grounds for Divorce" on Radcliffe and Maconie and that was it.

Very glad I bought it too, as it's now my favourite album of the year, by far. If it's true that their old record company passed on this, then they must be feeling pretty sick now.

The music is gorgeous,finely wrought stuff from a band that have grown together over the past 15 years or so, much in the same way as Radiohead. This music is an excellent counterpoint to the lyrics, which can be deeply effecting. So much so that I've even quoted them to my wife, it's that easy for them relate them to your own life. (Before you ask, that'll be the love songs on the album.)

The album moves from love songs to story songs and back again - the track order helps the dynamic of the album too.

I have an hour's drive to work, so I get to hear this in one sitting and invariably there is one track that I shall be shouting it's welcome. As you do. At the moment it's "One Day Like This", but could easily be one of the other songs next week.

A masterpiece.

Phil
uk
2nd October 2008

The Best of British
Elbow have what it takes to become one of the biggest bands for some time.

Few bands have all the ingredients but Elbow do, the biggest being the lyrics of Guy Garvey and that voice, that delivery.

They probably shouldn't have opened this album with 'Starlings' as it is impossible to get better than this I feel, after lonely piano, trumpets, backgrond vocals Garvey steps to the fore delivering lyrics so simple but so touching, this is why this man is a poet

'you are the only thing, in any room your ever in, i'm selfish, stubborn and too old'

'find a man thats truer than, find a man that needs you more than i'

The rest of the album is truly five star, and Elbow go from strength to strength. Four albums in and Garvey's songwriting shows no signs of drying up, long may it continue