Elbow "Seldom Seen Kid" (2008) - got it
I had no real expectations coming into this one, though I later remembered
that my wife owns some Elbow albums. I'm happy to say that is now
another taste that we share.
Loved it! It has such a great mix of sonic experimentation, clever
arrangements. It keeps things interesting by changing the approach to
best suit each song.
The album opens with "Starlings"
which begins with reverbed guitars, gentle pulsing vocals and vocals,
almost sonically evoking the birds themselves, before bursting into huge soundings of horns, very loud in the mix. Guy Garvey's gentle vocals
ride the winds between. Such sonic picture painting is also used in
"The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver", which with its slow booming
drums and slow strings underpinning a staccato guitar line seems to
evoke a wide, beautiful city scape viewed from up high.
"The Bones of You"
starts off much more stripped down with sparse guitar over a percussion
groove, but it builds with fuzzed guitar and vocal harmonies that bring
Muse to mind for me. The middle section is wild guitar that wouldn't
feel out of place on Radiohead's "The Bends". But none of this is to
suggest this band are derivative, these are just the nearest reference
points I can draw. For example, the band out-Black Keys the Black Keys with the bluesy rock of "Grounds for Divorce". "An Audience With the Pope" has an angular
piano-backed groove that hangs somewhere between Space (the band) and
the Specials' "Ghost Town".
"The Fix" features guest vocals from Richard Hawley, and his deep croon
nicely plays against Garvey's higher tone. "Some Riot" has an almost
Beatles-y/Lennon vibe to it. "One Day Like This" has an uplifting
choir backing.
After all the darting around and grand arrangements, the album ends on a
subtle key with the subdued "We're Away". Loved the journey and had
no qualms about taking it back to the start and listening again a couple
more times.
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