The Seldom Seen Kid |
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by: Elbow |
List Price: £16.99 Price: £4.97 You Save: £12.02 (71%)Prices subject to change. Used Price: £5.99 Collectible Price: £19.99 Third Party New Price: £4.95 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours |
| Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0602517640986 Label: Polydor Group Manufacturer: Polydor Group Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Polydor Group Release Date: March 17, 2008 Running Time: 56 minutes Studio: Polydor Group Sales Rank: 3 |
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| Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: There are few things in life quite so liberating as the opening track on an Elbow album--they're like airlocks between the plainness of the outside world and the elaborate melancholic heave-ho that you are likely about to submerge yourself in. Following predecessors "Any Day Now", "Ribcage" and "Station Approach", "Starlings" opens their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid rising from a bed of tumbling electronic subtlety like a depressed Atari game loading up, adding bare touches of piano, glimpses of ambient guitar, out of body background vocals, an understated pulse and a wisp of strings, before--EXCELSIS!--a fanfare avalanche of horns crashes the gate and elevates things to gasping palatial heights, before Guy Garvey's inimitable gravel tone and wrenchingly poetic reinterpretations of the everyday announce their arrival proper. It's astonishing, by far the most progressive moment on the album and if anything it sets the bar too high. But even when the pace dips, and songs like "Mirrorball" and "Weather to Fly" don't distinguish themselves quite enough, their textural peerlessness remains. This is a beautiful sounding record. Their collaboration with Richard Hawley may be more of a curiosity than a thing of beauty, but the highs, the riffing cross-stitch of "Ground for Divorce", the desolate grandeur of "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" and the enlightened string-laden anthem "On a Day Like This" (like their own Sound of Music--only substitute the Alpine peaks for a Manchester high-rise) number amongst the best of their career. --James Berry |
| Customer Reviews |
Average Rating:  |
Rating:  - Excellent! - Sounds good too...I've only just got to hear of this band and like others who've shared their views, I really appreciate the diverse and thoughtful music on this CD and look forward to getting to know it better over the coming months. The other thing that sets this CD apart is the great sound quality on offer. In my view, so much modern music is ruined by the over-loud, yet anodyne production which saps the music of all emotion and dynamics, making it all sound the same from track to track. I tend to ... Read More Rating: - This is the only thing in any CD rack it's ever inI have to confess I'd never heard of Elbow until I was tuned into the Mercury Prize where I have to confess I was expecting to see The Last Shadow Puppets scoop the prize. So I immediately bought The Seldom Seen Kid to see why and can honestly say that I have not heard such a diverse, engaging, intelligent, thought and emotion-provoking album since...well, I can't think of an album that has ever made me think or moved me as much as this one. There are lots of detailed ... Read More Rating:  - very very dullhow on earth did this get so many 5 stars reviews - the world has gone mad. fair enough they may be ok compared to some of the other popular bands out there - but this offers little that hasnt been done before - and there is nothing wrong with copying a style here or there but if you it has to be done with an engaging delivery and some panache - however this doesnt. its like a bad mix of the smiths and latter day radiohead with coldplay esque pretentions. before ... Read More Rating: - Peerless and BeautifulThe depth and character of all of these songs is something to behold - many come in from left-field with stunningly orginal and yet familiar arrangements. Lyrically intrigue and often very funny the songs are better than on the last two albums - and they were VERY good songs. And Guy Garvey's voice gets better and better - rich like a properly made mocha and dipping into his native dialect in all the right places. Fantastic album and easily deserving of the Mercury prize - better than the ... Read More Rating:  - Mancunian WayI only belatedly got around the giving this album the appraisal it deserves in the last week or so. Never previously been over excited by Elbow's output and rather put off by the OTT hype which has been the lot of the Mercury Prize winners since the Seldom Seen Kid juggernaut kicked in and the album started selling by the shed load. What can I say ? It's a good album but not 'The Album of 2008' as some has claimed and hardly a classic either. To my ears it's a very mellow,easy listening pop album full ... Read More |
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