The Seldom Seen Kid
Elbow
Score:89
Reviewer: Ed Butler
Label: Polydor (USA, UK & Australia)
Reviewed: Apr 21st '08, Released:2008
Elbow are the unassuming, overachieving older brother of the indie music scene. Their orchestral, ambitious brand of library-rock has, across the release of four albums over seven years, acted as a definitive lesson in mature creativity. That this sustained magnificence has not resulted in massive record sales remains a crime of the highest order.
There has always been a pervasive sense about Elbow’s music that it is much more the result of perspiration rather than inspiration. It was as if they made music by the rules, creating magic by following those structures so rigorously that flaws were rarely evident. A string section here, a judiciously selected backing vocal there, Elbow crafted songs, slowly and purposefully, flashes of brilliance the result of meticulous planning.
As such, The Seldom Seen Kid demonstrates that Elbow have, if nothing else, learned with each successive release ways to improve that songcraft, building onto their already bulging repertoire with flourishes tossed in to accompany the ever-growing list of genres at their beck and call.
This, the latest effort, sees Elbow incorporating electronica (‘Starlings’) and flamenco guitar (‘The Bones of You’), while retaining a little bit of everything that was Elbow in the past. Highlights are almost too numerous to mention, short of posting the tracklisting in its totality, but the sweeping strings on ‘Mirrorball’ and the driving rock of opening single ‘Grounds for Divorce’ are standouts.
But it is on album closer ‘Friend of Ours’ that Elbow prove their true worth. A tribute to close friend of the band, Manchester musician Brian Glancy, it is a study in masculine friendship and grief, with lyrics so moving it is worth reprinting them in their entirety. “Before leaving get to the bar/No one round here makes you pay/Never very good at goodbyes/So (gentle shoulder charge) Love you mate/Salford skyline blue/Always you/Could fly round the corner/’Til you do, love you mate.” As it is sung, strings swell, and eyes moisten. Elbow remain understated, undervalued and overachieving. This is a stunning album.
