Elbow 'The Seldom Seen Kid'

I had always lumped Elbow in with bands like Snow Patrol, Coldplay and Keane, worthy but dull MOR specialists with little interesting to offer. Reviews of this new(ish) album caused me to think again and when somebody compared the craft on this album to some of Tindersticks' finest, I had to see what I was missing and buy this record. I've been listening to it on and off for the last few weeks, desperately trying to find a reason for all the fanfare.

Opener 'Starlings' is promising, starting with electronic rumblings and the odd orchestral stab before Guy Garvey's low, mumbling vocal begins. Its a well-written song and a perfect opener in many ways. From here on I struggled. 'The Bones of You' is alright- sung with some heart and with some nice flamenco sounds. 'Mirrorball', however, is the sort of tedious love song that has been done to death by the aforementioned MOR bands. Offering absolutely nothing to recommend it and not even a spark of originality. I listened to it less than an hour ago and now can remember nothing other than the cliched "everything has changed" refrain. It is at this point that Garvey's voice stops sounding original and endearing and starts to grate.

Thankfully, 'Grounds For Divorce' which follows, is good. Featuring a great guitar riff and a catchy, dark lyric it is upbeat and fresh sounding. 'Audience With The Pope', a song about everything having to wait "if she needs me" is absolutely awful. Rather like being sat next to someone on the train having a long and boring phone conversation, listening to this drone on with a sentiment which has been done a million times before is really quite depressing. Not uplifting, or thought-provoking, or touching in any way. Just dull.

From here the album drags on for what seems like an eternity. I should mention that a couple of the remaining songs are tributes to a friend of the band who died a couple of years ago. These songs actually aren't as bad as you might imagine and avoid being overly sentimental. Elsewhere though, Richard Hawley guests on a track and then, a couple of songs later, the band have a go at doing a Richard Hawley song! It is all a bit odd, but 'One Day Like This' with its strings and swooning vocals is clearly an attempt to re-write Richard's 'Cole's Corner'. Guess what? Not as good.

The person who compared this to Tindersticks is now not in my good books. It sounds nothing like Tindersticks, lacking the originality, the darkness, the heart and the edge.

It is not bad music necessarily, just un-necessary. I can't imagine a time in my life when I would want to turn to this record. I certainly wouldn't play it to be uplifted but when I feel sad and want music to help me linger in that sadness a while I turn to artists like Bonnie Prince Billy, Mark Kozelek, The Innocence Mission etc and I can't imagine Elbow filling that gap either. I suspect this is background music for dinner parties.

4.8

['The Seldom Seen Kid' is out now on Polydor. Plenty of better albums are also out now on smaller labels.]