Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

Have you ever loved a band that you can’t believe you didn’t listen to earlier? Leaving you feeling like you have missed out on so many years of fulfillment you could have had if you’d only just sat down for 30 minutes and listened. I have. For me this is Elbow. Hailing from around the Manchester area in the North of England, they used to be a band that you found out about by word of mouth. You never heard much about them in the music press, and you didn’t often find tracks on the radio. And like me, if you didn’t listen to people who told you to give them a try, you could end up missing out altogether. Don’t be like me.

The latest studio Album from Elbow is just an astounding feat of beauty and grace that almost wasn’t to be. Their relationship with label V2 took a turn for the worst after 3 studio albums, and complex legal proceedings hampered the bands signing to a new label, eventually falling through and leaving the band adrift in the ether. Having no one to answer to, and no pressure of deadlines they holed up in Blueprint Studios in Manchester, the same facility they used for recording ‘Leaders of the Free World’, and set about writing the album they wanted to write.
By late 2007 a deal with label Fiction had been made and the album had been completed.
And so with a solid platform for the album that was almost never released ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ saw the light of day.
The fallen-angelic voice of Guy Garvey never, & i mean never fails to amaze me, and is perfectly complemented by the exquisite musicianship of the rest of his band. Elbow really know how to make use of sound and effects, enabling them to create and separate each instrument quite unlike any other band I can think of, producing the most uplifting atmospheric background to some of the most beautiful tracks in the Brit/Alt genre. All this is oftentimes wrapped in a cozy, orchestral blanket, creating a warmth that you miss when you realize its not there.

Stand out tracks for me are ‘Grounds for Divorce’, ‘The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver’ and the anthemic ‘One Day Like This’.
I would urge you to check out all 4 of the full length studio offerings from Elbow – listened to chronologically, you can actually hear a band grow. I would also urge you to check out Elbow perform the entire album with the BBC Concert Orchestra, which they actually did about 3 weeks ago – I think you can see it on the iPlayer, but if you’re too late it’s being released on DVD & CD in March. Get it, its good for the soul.

In 2008 Elbow took the Mercury Music for the album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ and also took Best British Group at the Brit Awards in February 2009, and quite right too as deserve it they do.