Elbow return with their new album, The Seldom Seen Kid. Recorded by the band at their own facility within Salford’s Blueprint Studios and produced by keyboard player, Craig Potter, The Seldom Seen Kid is the follow up to 2005’s universally acclaimed Leaders Of The Free World and first for Fiction/Geffen Records.

The lyrical core of The Seldom Seen Kid sees Guy Garvey address key questions of life. The 11 tracks on the album cover themes of love and loss and become the central focus of an album that sees Elbow, a band universally recognized for their musical ability and innovation; stretch their sonic template further than ever before. With band members now fathers of young children this is an unashamedly grown up record from a band that can rightfully claim status as elder statesmen of the UK music scene. In a climate where the single could be regarded as king this is also very much an album, designed and envisaged to be listened to as a whole.

Elbow’s success to this point has been less than smooth, the band being together since 1991 and, as has been documented, suffering a false start to their career before a succession of rapturously received independent EP’s in the form of Noisebox, Newborn and Any Day Now led to the release of debut album Asleep In The Back (and subsequent Mercury and Brit nominations) in 2001 followed by Cast of Thousands which was released in 2004. A band keen to consistently challenge their listeners both lyrically and musically, Elbow’s progress from that point has seen them accommodate overtly political and emotionally bare lyricism across their formidable back catalogue.