Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow

Elbow’s fourth album shouldn’t have happened. Dropped by their label, producing themselves, and four albums into a twenty year career that had only really begun to happen this decade, it came out without much in the way of expectation, but by the time it had shortlisted and won the Mercury Music Prize Elbow had gone up a notch in popularity, a stadium band, who were also seen as national treasures.

Guy Garvey’s down-to-earth Bury persona is part of this, but Garvey has always worn his heart on his sleeve lyrically, and with this album being a tribute to a dead friend, that honesty reached its apex with their fourth album. Always less than content with the short form pop song, their albums are integrated works, which still manage to have the odd radio hit on them – in this case, the song that the BBC chose to soundtrack the Olympics, the euphoric, One Day Like This, possibly the most conventionally structured song of their career.

Yet its Garvey’s world weary vocals, and the ever varied sonic palate that makes this album in particular so resonate with the times. It seems now that Elbow, four albums in, are the honesty and soul of the decade’s British music.