Elbow - "The Seldom Seen Kid"

Released: March 17, 2008
Format: standard album (CD or download)

Songwriting: 7
Musicianship: 7
Recording: 8
First Impression: 7
Staying Power: 7

Best description: "Peter Gabriel meets Coldplay."  I know it sounds like a marriage made in hell, but it works on many levels.  Deep, brooding ballads mix with upbeat and catchy pop numbers.  The assembly of tracks is a bit eclectic, but that just means that as a whole it suits one's mood more often, especially if one has bipolar disorder.  But seriously, everything from the crafting to the performance to the recording is top notch.

As a fussy audiosnobphile, I want to take a moment to proclaim that this is one of best-sounding recordings I have heard in many years.  Though a small number of tracks are loud and compressed in places (typical of almost all recordings in the recent Loudness War), none of them are overly distorted or harsh sounding.  In fact most of them dial it down a few notches, allowing the music itself to dictate the loudness as required.

Suggested sample track: "The Bones of You"

Recommendation: buy the CD or download the highest quality version you can find.  Play it on your best sound system, in a quiet room, with the lights dimmed.