Album: The Seldom Seen Kid
Artist: Elbow
Born: Ramsbottom, Bury
Released: March 2008
Genre: Indie Rock
Sometimes good things happen to good people. There's so much to like about Elbow; their refreshing honesty in an era of irony; the fact they're named after a line of dialogue in one of the BBC's greatest ever dramas, The Singing Detective; their persistence and self-belief in the face of early setbacks. Elbow's first LP, Asleep In The Back (2001), was nominated for the Mercury Prize but the band had to wait another seven years to finally get the recognition they deserved. I really like their 2003 LP, Cast Of Thousands, especially the tracks Ribcage and Switching Off (John Cale picked the latter as one of his Desert Island Discs), but The Seldom Seen Kid is the band's finest achievement. Opening track Starlings isn't one of the most musically interesting songs on the record, but immediately it immerses the listener in the album's prevailing mood of romantic lyricism and moody introspection ("I'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue"). This is followed by The Bones Of You, another chance for Guy Garvey's songwriting to shine, as he tells the story of a workaholic who's given pause by a song that reminds him of a former lover ("Image on image like beads on a rosary / pulled through my head as the music takes hold"). His eye for poignant details ("And I can't move my arm / for the fear that you will wake") make the lyrics worth listening to closely. The sequencing and pacing of the album also make it an engaging listen, with slower tracks interspersed with more energetic songs like Grounds For Divorce.
Relationships are often put under the microscope in Garvey's songs, but in Grounds For Divorce the subject isn't the end of a marriage, as the title suggests, but Bryan Glancy, a friend of the group who died in 2006 aged 39 (he's the Seldom Seen Kid to whom the LP is dedicated). It looks back to all the boozy evenings they spent together, playing cards and singing karaoke, avoiding their other halves and "working on a cocktail / called grounds for divorce". Another homage to Glancy is the final song, Friend Of Ours, which Garvey delivers in a genuinely moving way ("gentle shoulder barge, love ya mate"). His voice has a similar visceral emotional depth as Talk Talk's Mark Hollis. Other highlights are The Fix, performed with fellow Northern troubadour Richard Hawley, Mirrorball and the single that launched them to fame, One Day Like This. The song was played live by the band at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, causing sales to spike once more, and it will no doubt accompany TV footage of euphoria for many years to come. Overexposure has inevitably diluted some of the song's charms, but it's a brilliant modern day reworking of The Beatles' Hey Jude nonetheless. Recent Elbow albums haven't quite matched the quality of The Seldom Seen Kid, but Garvey has taken on a new role as curator, by running his own record label (Skinny Dog) and hosting a weekly two-hour radio show for BBC 6 Music, which has become so popular that it was recently moved to a more prominent Sunday afternoon slot.
Sometimes good things happen to good people. There's so much to like about Elbow; their refreshing honesty in an era of irony; the fact they're named after a line of dialogue in one of the BBC's greatest ever dramas, The Singing Detective; their persistence and self-belief in the face of early setbacks. Elbow's first LP, Asleep In The Back (2001), was nominated for the Mercury Prize but the band had to wait another seven years to finally get the recognition they deserved. I really like their 2003 LP, Cast Of Thousands, especially the tracks Ribcage and Switching Off (John Cale picked the latter as one of his Desert Island Discs), but The Seldom Seen Kid is the band's finest achievement. Opening track Starlings isn't one of the most musically interesting songs on the record, but immediately it immerses the listener in the album's prevailing mood of romantic lyricism and moody introspection ("I'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue"). This is followed by The Bones Of You, another chance for Guy Garvey's songwriting to shine, as he tells the story of a workaholic who's given pause by a song that reminds him of a former lover ("Image on image like beads on a rosary / pulled through my head as the music takes hold"). His eye for poignant details ("And I can't move my arm / for the fear that you will wake") make the lyrics worth listening to closely. The sequencing and pacing of the album also make it an engaging listen, with slower tracks interspersed with more energetic songs like Grounds For Divorce.
Relationships are often put under the microscope in Garvey's songs, but in Grounds For Divorce the subject isn't the end of a marriage, as the title suggests, but Bryan Glancy, a friend of the group who died in 2006 aged 39 (he's the Seldom Seen Kid to whom the LP is dedicated). It looks back to all the boozy evenings they spent together, playing cards and singing karaoke, avoiding their other halves and "working on a cocktail / called grounds for divorce". Another homage to Glancy is the final song, Friend Of Ours, which Garvey delivers in a genuinely moving way ("gentle shoulder barge, love ya mate"). His voice has a similar visceral emotional depth as Talk Talk's Mark Hollis. Other highlights are The Fix, performed with fellow Northern troubadour Richard Hawley, Mirrorball and the single that launched them to fame, One Day Like This. The song was played live by the band at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, causing sales to spike once more, and it will no doubt accompany TV footage of euphoria for many years to come. Overexposure has inevitably diluted some of the song's charms, but it's a brilliant modern day reworking of The Beatles' Hey Jude nonetheless. Recent Elbow albums haven't quite matched the quality of The Seldom Seen Kid, but Garvey has taken on a new role as curator, by running his own record label (Skinny Dog) and hosting a weekly two-hour radio show for BBC 6 Music, which has become so popular that it was recently moved to a more prominent Sunday afternoon slot.
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