Elbow: Guy Garvey (vocals); Mark Potter (guitars); Craig Potter (keyboards); Pete Turner (bass guitar); Richard Jupp (drums).
Seemingly incapable of making a lackluster record, the revered U.K. rock band Elbow knocks another one out of the park with its fourth full-length outing, THE SELDOM SEEN KID. Once again working the dreariness of its native Manchester into melancholy majesty, frontman Guy Garvey and the lads stomp through the gritty "Grounds for Divorce," while "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" reveals the group's subdued side, and "The Fix" conjures a dark mood that is furthered by guest vocalist Richard Hawley. A thoughtful and dynamic act wholly deserving of a bigger American audience, Elbow has crafted one of the best albums of early 2008 with THE SELDOM SEEN KID.
In a world where even the generally mediocre likes of Snow Patrol can have honest to goodness mainstream pop success, it seems peculiar that Elbow have never broken through beyond a devoted cult following. (Admittedly, the fact that their new labels, Polygram's alt rock imprint Fiction Records in the U.K. and Geffen in the U.S., are their fourth and fifth, respectively, after stints on Island, EMI, and V2, may have a lot to do with their lack of mainstream attention.) Exploring the fruitful middle ground between early Radiohead's mopey art rock and Coldplay's radio-friendly dumbing down of the same, Elbow makes records built on a balance of things not often found together anymore: strange musical textures alongside immediately accessible pop song choruses, or unexpected left turns in song structure paired with frontman Guy Garvey's warm, piercing vocals. It's no surprise that Elbow are regularly compared to old-school prog rockers like Pink Floyd and Electric Light Orchestra: they're proof that records can be cool and commercial at the same time, an idea that's not particularly hip in this day and age. Yet a song like "Grounds for Divorce," which puts a sharp, wryly funny Garvey lyric against a clanging, Tom Waits-like arrangement and throws on one of the album's catchiest tunes for good measure, or "Some Riot," which filters a yearning, lovely melody for guitar and piano through so many layers of effects and processing that it can be hard to tell what the original instruments sounded like, isn't afraid to display its accessibility even on its most experimental numbers. At the album's best, including the spacious, atmospheric balladry of the opening "Starlings" (imagine if Sigur R¢s could write a pop song as emotionally direct as Keane's "Everybody's Changing") and the potential radio breakthroughs of the soaring, semi-orchestral epic "One Day Like This" (complete with choral climax!) and the wistful "Weather to Fly," The Seldom Seen Kid is Elbow's most self-assured and enjoyable album so far. [The U.K. version added "We're Away" as a bonus track.] ~ Stewart Mason

Spin (p.108) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Nicer than Pulp, less sappy than Coldplay, Elbow excel at meticulous orchestral pop that doesn't take itself too seriously."
Spin (p.51) - Ranked #11 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "Always dramatic and occasionally sweet, it's music designed for dark whiskey and wool suits."
Q (Magazine) (p.114) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]hese songs refuse to trade in emotional certainties....They're still burning brightly: slowly, maybe, but stronger than ever."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.69) - Ranked #23 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "SELDOM SEEN brought a romantic optimism to Elbow's poignancy.."
Clash (magazine) (p.69) - Ranked #6 in Clash's "The 40 Best Albums of 2008" -- "[G]randiose yet grounded, soaringly beautiful yet subtly beguiling -- a sky-scraping tour de force of an album."
The Word (magazine) (p.98) - "THE SELDOM SEEN KID is a quiet triumph, poised between joy and heartbreak, revelling in the everyday and full of a sense of being made far, far away..."