Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow's progress to this point has been less than smooth, the band being together since 1991 and, as has been documented, suffering a false start to their career before a succession of rapturously received independent EP's in the form of 'Noisebox', 'Newborn' and 'Any Day Now' led to the release of debut album 'Asleep In The Back' (and subsequent Mercury and Brit nominations) in 2001. A band keen to consistently challenge their listeners both lyrically and musically, Elbow's progress from that point has seen them switch genres and accommodate overtly political and emotionally bare lyricism across their formidable back catalogue.

'The Seldom Seen Kid' continues in that tradition. So we move from the sparse electronic of 'Starlings' through the flamenco influenced 'The Bones Of You' to the Zepellinesque rock of first single 'Grounds For Divorce where Garvey's gallows humour shines in the opening couplet of 'I've been working on a cocktail / Called grounds for divorce'. Album centrepiece, 'The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver' melds Elbow's musical ability to create epic heartfelt soundtracks with Guy's knack of making the personal universal, telling the story of a boastful tower crane operator revealing the inner misery of his life in a discussion of the hollow centre of many outwardly successful lives.
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