Elbow - The seldom seen kid

Marvellous, I reckon. Available on vinyl x2 45 RPM at Fopp. Give it a go.

 

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article4720692.ece

Well done chaps.

 

Will get one of those, they're come from about 3 miles away from where I live.

 

Hi,

All Interesting stuff.

I have this album on cd for some time and it's enjoyable. May try for a vinyl copy at some stage.

Winning the Mercury awards should more than boost their record sales. As a band they have been around since the early 90s but never sold in large amounts. They have had 4 labels and done 4 albums, to lots of critcal acclaim but not big sales.

The album looks like hitting number in the album charts next week due to the huge increase in sales from winning the Mercury awards. It remains to be seen if the band can use this as a springboard to bigger things.

SCIDB

 

Elbow

I bought the second album, Cast of Thousands, when it came out, and have subsequently bought all 4:-
Asleep in the Back V2 2002
Cast of Thosands V2 2003
Leaders of the Free World V2 2005
The Seldom Seen Kid Polydor 2008

Asleep in the back is a very good album, and with the benefit of retrospect, you can see Elbow have enough ideas and musicianship to be a long term prospect rather than a flash in the pan.
Cast of Thousands is a truly great album, there are more musical ideas ( that work ) here than on the last 4 Oasis albums. It expands on the work done in AITB massively and is one of those records you can come back to every 3 months or so and still love.
Leaders of the Free World, is a little patchier, but still with great songs, Station Approach and Forget Myself in particular.
The Seldom Seen Kid is a return to form shown on COT. A majestic, brooding album that covers a number of issues, mostly, I get the feeling, of what it feels like to be approaching early middle age and the melancholy moods this brings. However, when you listen closely, the songs are nearly always optimistic in outlook. Mirrorball, Learning to Fly and The Fix ( co-written with Richard Hawley )all have this mix of intense, image inducing lyrics allied to superb music and musicainship.
One final point, and of particular relevance to you ZG guys, is the production and mastering of this album. Craig Potter, Elbow pianist produced and mixed this album. He, or Elbow collectively, have decided to go against the grain of turning everything up to 11. There is a trend amongst record labels to maximise sales of CDs and downloads by having the volume artificially turned up 'at birth'. Apparently, the louder something is recorded, the higher the volume sales. But this is at the expense of the inherent dynamism in the music. I am sure many of you remember recording music on to tape and using the VU meter so as to just get the peaks tipping it into red. Well now the execs at record labels are going against this wisdom. However, some recording artists are kicking against this trend, and Elbow are one of them.
Follow this link for further info:-

http://www.turnmeup.org/

TTFN

 

Interesting post.

I bought Seldom Seen Kid (cd version) before all the hype about it in the press (actually heard about it on ZG - this very emporium! https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=18672&highlight=elbow) and recently bought Cast Of Thousands and Asleep In The Back on the strength of Seldom Seen Kid.
Asleep In The Back is a very good album and I enjoyed it immensely, but COT sounds very compressed by comparison. The ideas are there, but for me the production lets it down. Of the two earlier albums I bought, AITB is the one I would return to. (£2.99 each from Play.com, btw)

Just shows how tastes differ, I suppose.