Rating: - Simply stunning
If you love someone, give them a copy of this.

It is simply stunning.

---

Rating: - Send up a prayer in my name!
Fantastic album, and possibly best of the year. It's certainly as good as Radioheads "In Rainbows".

Not sure if it's quite as good as "Leaders of the Free World", but they have followed up one of the best albums of all time with another classic.

---

Rating: - Heart kicking Elbow
The Seldom Seen Kid

Without doubt my CD of the year...Heartkicking...wonderful... Far be it for me to describe each track... I suggest you just submerge yourself in the sound...

---

Rating: - Belting
A real joy to listen to from the start. Can really see why it was voted album of the year by the Mercury awards - truly deserved.

---

Rating: - Grown Up Music for Grown Ups
The horns of the opening track `Starlings' seem to ring out as a fitting fanfare to the world announcing the arrival of this excellent record. What impresses me most about `The Seldom Seen Kid' is the maturity of songwriting and musicianship throughout; Elbow are true masters of their craft both musically and lyrically. The songs here are perfectly put together with the traditional rock template enhanced by subtle electronic effects and atmospheric strings. The lyrics truthfully, and with wry amusement, observe the realities of everyday life through stand out lines like: "cramming commitments like cats in a sack", "straight to my head like the first cigarette of the day" and "I'm working on a cocktail called grounds for divorce" to name but a few.

The band show their versatility by following `Mirrorball', with its gorgeous, melancholy string washes with `Grounds For Divorce' a stomping rock track punched along with a fantastic, growling guitar line. On the whole, the songs on `The Seldom Seen Kid' swell atmospherically and are richly melodic and satisfying, none more so than on `One Day Like This'. This song is a true string- drenched, flag-waving anthem, with a massive, uplifting lyric and chorus and would have made a fantastic closing track. I mention this because the only real criticism I have of the record is of the two tracks that succeed `One Day Like This'; both `Friend of Ours' and `We're Away' are very low-key and subdued and are a little disappointing.

The rest of `The Seldom Seen Kid' is still good enough to be a five star record for me though and thoroughly deserves all its plaudits and awards.