Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid [2× Vinyl LP]

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid [2× Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: 2× Vinyl LP, Album, 45 RPM, 180 Gram, Gatefold, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: 1764728
• Barcode: 602517647282
• Genre: Indie Rock / Art Rock / Alternative Rock
• Label: Polydor
• Originally Released: 17 March 2008
• Condition: New & Sealed

⚠️ Please note: this record plays at 45 RPM. Set your turntable speed accordingly before playing.

Description

The Seldom Seen Kid is the fourth studio album by Elbow — Guy Garvey (vocals, guitar), Craig Potter (keyboards), Mark Potter (guitar), Pete Turner (bass) and Richard Jupp (drums) — released on Fiction Records on 17 March 2008, and the album that transformed the band from a critically admired cult act into one of the most celebrated British groups of their generation. Recorded entirely at Blueprint Studios in Manchester, it is the first Elbow album to be entirely self-produced, recorded and mixed by the band without any outside assistance — a decision made partly out of necessity after being dropped by V2 Records in 2005, and partly out of the confidence that came from three albums of increasingly accomplished songwriting. The result is a record of exceptional coherence and emotional depth, on which every production decision — the dynamics, the space, the restraint — serves the material rather than decorating it. It debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart and went on to win the 2008 Mercury Music Prize, with judges praising it as "a humane, poetic and often beautiful album." The band followed its release by winning Best British Group at the 2009 Brit Awards and two 2009 Ivor Novello Awards — Best Song for "One Day Like This" and Best Contemporary Song for "Grounds for Divorce".

The album is bound together by its dedication to Bryan Glancy — a Manchester musician and close friend of Guy Garvey's who died suddenly in 2006. The album's title was Garvey's father's nickname for Glancy, taken from a character in Damon Runyon's stories of New York gangster life, and his memory runs through the record both explicitly — in the closing track "Friend of Ours", written directly in his memory — and implicitly, in the overarching emotional register of grief, friendship and gratitude that gives the album its particular warmth. The sole outside contributor is Richard Hawley — the Sheffield songwriter and guitarist — who provides guest vocals, lead guitar and co-writing on "The Fix", one of the album's most distinctive tracks, the two voices intertwining in a manner that recalls the great British vocal duet tradition.

The album's singles demonstrate its range. "Grounds for Divorce" (number 19 UK) opens with a sludgy, hypnotic guitar riff — one of the most immediately recognisable intros in the band's catalogue — before building through chanted vocals to a thunderous climax: Elbow at their most viscerally compelling. "One Day Like This" — a string-laden anthem of joy and longing that closes Side C — won the Ivor Novello for Best Song and became the track most widely associated with the band: used as the theme for the BBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, featured in advertising and television, and performed to enormous crowds at Glastonbury and beyond. The album opens with "Starlings", which alternates between hushed verses and surging brass sections; "The Bones of You" incorporates elements of George Gershwin's "Summertime" (credited on the sleeve) into a piece of breathtaking melodic beauty; "Mirrorball" is a cinematic ballad of considerable ambition; and the Side D closer "Friend of Ours" ends the album on a note of quiet devastation — a direct tribute to Bryan Glancy, the last word on a record shaped entirely by his memory. "We're Away" — recorded during the sessions — was released as a bonus track on the CD editions only and does not appear on the vinyl.

This is the original 2008 pressing on Polydor on 2× black vinyl at 45 RPM, housed in a gatefold sleeve, pressed by GZ Media in the Czech Republic. The mastering is by Tim Young — the pressing is noted for its exceptional dynamic range and clarity, the 45 RPM format allowing the maximum possible audio information per side. The album packaging includes the Turn Me Up! dynamic range initiative logo, reflecting the band's deliberate rejection of the loudness war approach common to major label releases of the period.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Starlings
2. The Bones of You (incorporates elements of "Summertime" by George Gershwin)
3. Mirrorball

Side B

4. Grounds for Divorce
5. An Audience with the Pope
6. Weather to Fly

Side C

7. The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver
8. The Fix (ft. Richard Hawley)
9. Some Riot

Side D

10. One Day Like This
11. Friend of Ours

Credits

• Guy Garvey – Vocals, Guitar
• Craig Potter – Keyboards, Producer
• Mark Potter – Guitar, Producer
• Pete Turner – Bass, Producer
• Richard Jupp – Drums, Producer
• Richard Hawley – Vocals, Guitar, Co-Writer (The Fix)
• Tim Young – Mastering
• Label – Polydor