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An absolute gem of an Elbow album, to lift you. Buy it and you'll love it.


Rating: 5 out of 5

Guy Garvey has been quoted as saying that this would be the last album that Elbow would be likely to release due to the changing musical landscape and the rise of the 3 minute download. I would kind of agree that the past-time of sitting and listening to an album seems to have gone the way of the doo doo as we all get Ipoded up, but if you are an old luddite like me and like to get the full 12 track treatment then this is the album for you. There is an excellent flow to the album, yes shades of 'asleep in the back' but that cant be a bad thing can it? If "the seldom seen kid" is a final love note to the late 20th centuries torrid affair with the album then I think you would have to look for a long time to fine another as well written and as endering as this one. Thank you Elbow,

Rating: 5 out of 5

Slowly , inexorably ,Elbow have become the BIG band we can rely on. More so than Radiohead (Whose admirably non-commercial bent makes them hard to warm to musically sometimes) more so than R.E.M. who have become rather derivative , and certainly more so than pompous blowhards like Coldplay and U2 . Their debut "Asleep In The Back " still sounds magnificent and while for me "Leaders Of The Free World" didn't quite justify the hype it is still an album with wondrous moments. "The Seldom Seen Kid" therefore has been as hotly anticipated as the next Paris Hilton home video . A lot of pressure for the band then ...
Keyboard player Craig Potter has taken over production duties and while he's not installed any major changes in the band's sound, there's a sparkle and variety about the album that renders it instantaneously appealing. As is usual with Elbow, significant subjects dominate. Several members of the band have recently become fathers, and the album is dedicated to their close friend Bryan Glancy, a Mancunian singer/songwriter who died in 2006. Of course, there's also the usual Guy Garvey ruminations on love, bereavement and relationships, written with his earthy eloquence and wit.
The usual guitars , keyboards and drums are embellished by strings ,brass and what is credited as "The Elbow choir". The sound is expansive and hefty , several songs alternate between quiet/loud moments and Garvey ,s slightly gravely tones are in fine fettle .He can do the sensitive stuff ....well sensitively but when some vocal thrust is needed he is never found short of horsepower.
Take the exceptional "The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver" where the aching cavernous strings see Garvey lament perceptively till at the swelling orchestration he howls with consummate empathy .That's just one of several outstanding songs on this album. "Starlings " has warbling electronics and languorous vocal backing punctuated by truly startling ruptures of brass and great lines like "I'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue". "The Bones Of You " sets off kilter percussion to thrumming guitar notes and morphs from lovely melody to reverberating dissension like a butterfly turning into an iron vampire bat.
The pretty acoustic "MirrorBall" lends itself to a glistening orchestral in contrast to the grinding industrial tones of "Grounds For Divorce" which still has a memorable hummed verse line. It's that ability to match the incongruous to purring melodies that makes a band like Elbow so special. "An Audience For The Pope" sounds like a soundtrack with espalier keyboards and a melody as smooth as a racing snake. "Weather To Fly" is a truly unparalleled ballad with multi tracked vocals where Garvey is asking "Are we having the time of our life's?" while sounding utterly forlorn .
Yet in the midst of all this touching splendour comes the duet with Richard Hawley "The Fix" a playful character piece about a pair of scammers with slightly arch harmonies , fairground organ and fifties guitar . "Some Riot" is a solemn incremental ballad with trembling chords and this segues into "One Day Like This" which has dreamy slightly oriental strings which suddenly jar like a stubbed toe then turn all dreamy again as Garvey cry's "Holy cow I love your eyes". The Elbow come in for the last third in a redolent of "Grace Under Pressure" from their last album ."Friends Of Ours" is the closing elegy to Glancy with crystal piano notes, dew heavy guitar and another exquisite string arrangement. Hidden extra "Were Away" is brief and like a bar lounge number with the lights dimmed low and tumbler filled with scotch on the rocks on top of the piano.
The Seldom Seen Kid is an exceptional album , full of pathos , compassion, vulnerability and yet also brimming with strength and self deprecating wit. It does that tremendously difficult thing of matching genuine sonic and musical innovation with a sterling ear for a rousing tune. Okay it won't blow your windows out with astounding clinical soniferous experimentation which is what some people will criticise it for no doubt. While it's on though the world will go away and you feel truly alive and full of rampant possibilities. That's what great music does. That's what Elbow can do better than most .On this album they do it a hell of a lot. Holy cow I love this album .




Rating: 5 out of 5

Elbow have come a long way since their first album, which I never could get into. Their second and third albums were brilliant. Seldom Seen Kid is simply beautiful from start to finish. By the way, I love Keane and Coldplay too, but won't make comparisons.

Rating: 5 out of 5

something has gloriously, unexpectedly come along that that is fit to stand shoulder to shoulder with what all right thinking people acknowledge to be the greatest record ever made. More overtly emotional and less cerebral than than Radiohead, Elbow are mining a motherlode of post-rock prog-rock that has left even a long-sranding admirer like me stunned. The jaw-dropping epic beauty of The Lonliness Of A Tower Crane Driver is the aching heart of a landmark recording.

Rating: 5 out of 5