{grate 3.5} Some people find it unfortunate for a band to name themselves
after a joint covered with darkened skin in need of exfoliation, but doesn’t
the name at least intrigue you? Don’t you wonder what a band with a name like
Elbow sounds like? Elbow conjures up thoughts of “elbow grease” or “elbow
room,” but what would spacious workroom sound like? One word: divine.

However, upon first listen to The Seldom Seen Kid, the
Manchesterian boys’ fourth effort, one can’t help but ask, “The hell is this
crap?” Yes, Elbow usually sucks the first time through but the band slowly
reveals itself and rewards those who visit often. It will accidentally play
while your iPod is set to random and you’ll say, “Oh, what do we have here?”
Once you’ve sloughed off a couple of layers of dead, fast-to-judge epidermis,
you can’t help but keep going back to that smooth, polished joint of yours.

The Seldom Seen Kid opens with a track that’s hard to love,
the one that signals the initial turnoff. “Starlings” starts off in “A Day in
the Life” chaotic disarray and then cuts itself up into an electronic beat. But
don’t fret, the album only gets better and better. “Mirrorball” is a
trip-hopped dam that when eventually breached, releases a flood of lush strings
to accompany singer Guy Garvey’s mature vocals. “Grounds for Divorce” contains
the line that the album’s title is taken from; the Real seldom seen kid was an
old friend of the band who died suddenly a couple of years back.

“Divorce” is the album’s gem, stomping through the track’s
entirety, sounding Beck-like with filtered vocals accented by banjo twangs and
a scraping washboard. “The Fix” draws from the soundtracks of campy Halloween
and Tim Burton flicks with all the sliding guitars lost in a vibrating haze,
featuring Richard Hawley of Pulp fame on guest vocals. The Seldom Seen Kid
reveals its majesty and soft skin in a way that will leave you glowing both
inside and out once you give it the attention it deserves.