The Seldom Seen Kid

Infobox Album
Name = The Seldom Seen Kid
Type = Album
Artist = Elbow


Released = flagicon|UK March 17, 2008
flagicon|US April 22, 2008
Recorded = 2006-2007, Blueprint Studios, Manchester
Genre = Indie rock
Length = 56:57
Label = Fiction Records
Polydor
Geffen Records
Producer = Craig Potter, Elbow
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kxfuxz9jldte link]
* Drowned in Sound (9/10) [http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/12949 link]
* NME (9/10) [http://www.nme.com/reviews/elbow/9568 link]
* Pitchfork Media (7.8/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/49454-the-seldom-seen-kid link]
* The Guardian Rating|4|5 [http://music.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,2264835,00.html link]
* The Independent Rating|4|5 [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-elbow-the-seldom-seen-kid-fiction-795340.html link]
* The Skinny Rating|5|5 [http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/41753-elbow-the-seldom-seen-kid link]
* The Sun Rating|4|5 [http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/article913993.ece link]
* The Times Rating|5|5 [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article3547504.ece link]
* Yahoo! Music (8/10) [http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/080320/33/21yge.html link]
Last album = "Leaders of the Free World"
(2005)
This album = "The Seldom Seen Kid"
(2008)
Next album =

"The Seldom Seen Kid" is the Mercury Prize winning fourth studio album by the indie rock band Elbow. It was released by Fiction Records on March 17, 2008 in the United Kingdomcite web | url = http://www.xfmmanchester.co.uk/Article.asp?id=555307 | title = Elbow Confirm Album Release Date | date = 2008-01-22 | accessdate = 2008-01-23] and was released by Geffen Records on April 22, 2008 in the United States. The dates for other countries have not been revealed yet.

The album was recorded at Blueprint Studios in Manchester, and is the first Elbow album to be entirely self-produced, mixed and recorded without any outside help. The bulk of the record was written and performed by the band, besides a guest appearance from singer-songwriter Richard Hawley who contributes to guest vocals, lead guitar and co-songwriting on "The Fix".

The title of the album is taken from one of the characters who appears in US author Damon Runyon's humorous, idiosyncratic tales of gangster life on New York's Broadway in the 1920s. In addition to appearing as a lyric within the album's first single, "Grounds for Divorce", The Seldom Seen Kid is also a nickname, given by Guy Garvey's fathercite web | url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article3529925.ece | title = The Big CD: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid | date = 2008-03-15 | accessdate = 2008-03-17] , for Bryan Glancy, a fellow Mancunian musician and friend of the band who died suddenly in 2006.cite web|url=http://www.musicomh.com/albums/elbow-4_0308.htm|title="The Seldom Seen Kid" review at Music OMH|accessdate=2008-03-12] The closing track, "Friend of Ours" and the liner notes of the album are dedicated in his memory.cite web|url=http://bryanglancy.blogspot.com/2008/02/bryans-legacy.html|title=Bryan's Legacy|accessdate=2008-03-12]

The album has received nearly unanimous praise from media outlets, including the NME and Planet Sound, which both gave Elbow their fourth consecutive 9/10 album rating. The album also debuted at #5 on the March 23 UK Albums Chart, the highest charting position of their career so far. The album was released in the UK in three versions: a regular CD in a super-jewel box, a digipack CD (both with one bonus track, "We're Away") and a double 12" vinyl LP.

The album's mastering is a rarity in modern music as it contains full audio dynamics, meaning quiet parts sound quiet and loud parts sound loud. Common music industry practice in modern times is to make quiet parts as loud as the loud parts, squashing the audio with excessive compression and limiting, leaving the music without dynamics so the sound stays at a constantly loud level. The first fifteen seconds of opening track "Starlings" (which contains a continuously fluctuating sound) was omitted from the physical CD release to prevent contribution to the loudness war.

The album won the Mercury Music Prize in 2008, an achievement which Guy Garvey declared to be "the best thing that's ever happened to us". [ [http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=281 | Bearded magazine] ] . The band were previously nominated for the award in 2001 with their debut album "Asleep in the Back".

Track listing

*"All songs written by Elbow; lyrics by Guy Garvey (except where noted)."

# "Starlings" - 5:20 (5:05 on CD versions)
# "The Bones of You" (Elbow; contains elements of "Summertime" by George Gershwin, Dubose Heyward, Dorothy Heyward & Ira Gershwin) - 4:49
# "Mirrorball" - 5:50
# "Grounds for Divorce" - 3:39
# "An Audience with the Pope" - 4:27
# "Weather to Fly" - 4:29
# "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" - 5:14
# "The Fix" (Elbow, Richard Hawley) - 4:27
# "Some Riot" - 5:23
# "One Day Like This" - 6:34
# "Friend of Ours" - 4:38 (5:01 with silence on version containing the bonus track)
* "We're Away" (UK bonus track) - 1:59

ingles

* "Grounds for Divorce" (March 10, 2008) [released and deleted in the same week] UK# 19
** CD: b/w "Hotel Istanbul" - 7:02
** 7" #1: b/w "Our Little Boat" - 2:52
** 7" #2: b/w "A Regret" - 1:09
* "One Day Like This" (June 2, 2008) UK# 35
** CD: b/w "Lullaby" - 3:13
** 7" #1: b/w "Every Bit the Little Girl" - 4:22
** 7" #2: b/w "Li'l Pissed Charmin' Tune"
* "The Bones of You" (September 29, 2008)
** Digital download: b/w "The Bones of You" (Live)

* "One Day Like This" (March 18, 2008)
** Digital download only.

Personnel

Elbow

*Guy Garvey – Vocals, String & Brass Arrangements
*Mark Potter – Guitars
*Craig Potter – Keyboards, Trumpet
*Pete Turner – Bass
*Richard Jupp – Drums

Additional musicians

*Richard Hawley - Vocals & Lead Guitar on "The Fix"
*Ian Burdge - Cello, Backing Vocals
*Prabjote Osahn - Violin, Backing Vocals
*Stella Page - Violin & Viola, Backing Vocals
*Ben Parsons - Coronet
*Nick Smart - Coronet & Flugel
*Matt Ball - Trombone
*Sheona White - E Flat Horn
*Tim Barber - Trumpet
*Elbow Choir - Backing Vocals
*Angela Thwaite - Backing Vocals
*Louise Turner - Backing Vocals

Credits

* Craig Potter - Production, Mixing
* Danny Evans - Additional engineering on "Grounds For Divorce" and "Friend Of Ours"
* Danny McTague - Additional engineering on "One Day Like This"
* Tim Young - Mastering
* Mazen Murad - Mastering on "We're Away"
* Oliver East - Artwork
* Red Design - Design

References