Stereo Jealousy

So, Elbow won the Mercury Prize! Not what we predicted here at WoW, Radiohead looked a cert for us. Elbow are however, more than worthy winners. To celebrate, we’ll take a look back across the Manchester band’s four albums…

	Elbow’s debut LP, Asleep In The Back had an aborted start to life, it wasn’t even meant to be their debut record. After having being messed around by Island, they finally released the album in May 2001. And what an album it was, packed with aching tunes sung as if through gravel. The record was unsurprisingly picked for a Mercury nomination, losing out to the sublime PJ Harvey with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Highlights from the album include Scattered Black & Whites, and two of the singles, Newborn and Powder Blue.
	The second LP, Cast Of Thousands opened promisingly with the superb Ribcage but, for me, offered less than the debut. The quality of songwriting was still there, as was the Mancunian worldview, yet the overall feel of the record was that the band had stagnated some.
	Cast Of Thousands on the other hand saw Garvey and co ratchet up the noise levels. Self-produced, the album featured the blistering single Forget Myself and again had a moving opener, Station Approach. Somehow Elbow’s appeal had diminished, despite ongoing critical clamour. Representing a relative commercial slump for the band, there were only two singles released from it.
	And so onto the award-winning The Seldom Seen Kid. Preceded by the belting Grounds For Divorce, this is perhaps the most confident Elbow record. There’s still heartache and there’s still Manchester, but perhaps more importantly there is influence from outside – Sheffield songsmith Richard Hawley makes an appearance on The Fix. The most heard bit of the album has to be the orchestral finish to the brilliant One Day Like This, repeated on everything from Team GB’s success at the Olympics to the TV detritus that is the Big Brother finale.

Each and every one of their albums is well worth the asking price, and I’d probably tackle them in release order. I’d still rate their debut as their most essential record to date, but they have proven themselves a band who can consistently produce excellent songs, and enjoyable albums.

Elbow – Powder Blue (Mp3)
Elbow – Ribcage (Video)
Elbow – Station Approach (Mp3)
Elbow – One Day Like This(Mp3)