''The Seldom Seen Kid'' is the fourth studio album by English
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Elbow
The elbow is the region between the arm and the forearm that surrounds the elbow joint. The elbow includes prominent landmarks such as the olecranon, the cubital fossa (also called the chelidon, or the elbow pit), and the lateral and the media ...
. It was released by
Fiction Records
Fiction Records is a British record label founded by Chris Parry in 1978, owned by Universal Music Group and based in the United Kingdom. It is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. It was originally a part of Polydor, ...
on 17 March 2008 in the United Kingdom
and was released by
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint.
Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
on 22 April 2008 in the United States. The album debuted at number five on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
and won the
Mercury Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...
in 2008.
Production
The album was recorded at Blueprint Studios in Manchester, and is the first Elbow album to be entirely self-produced, mixed and recorded without any outside help. The bulk of the record was written and performed by the band, aside from a guest appearance from singer-songwriter
Richard Hawley
Richard Willis Hawley (born 17 January 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story (formed while he was still at school) broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longp ...
, who contributes guest vocals, lead guitar and co-songwriting on "The Fix". ''The Seldom Seen Kid'' also incorporated
dynamic range
Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and light. It is measured either as a ratio or as a base-1 ...
and made note of this in its packaging, by promotin
Turn Me Up!in the album's packaging.
The title of the album is taken from one of the characters who appears in US author
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer.
He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To ...
's humorous, idiosyncratic tales of gangster life on New York's Broadway in the 1920s. In addition to appearing as a lyric within the album's first single, "Grounds for Divorce", ''The Seldom Seen Kid'' is also a nickname, given by Guy Garvey's father,
to Bryan Glancy, a fellow Mancunian musician and friend of the band who died suddenly in 2006.
The closing track, "Friend of Ours", as well as the liner notes of the album, are dedicated in his memory.
Release
The album debuted at number five on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, the highest charting position of the band's career so far. The album was released in the UK in three versions: a regular CD in a super-jewel box, a
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
CD (both with one bonus track, "We're Away") and a double 12" vinyl LP.
The song "Grounds for Divorce" was featured in a TV ad for the video game ''
Left 4 Dead
''Left 4 Dead'' is a 2008 first-person shooter game developed by Valve South and published by Valve. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in November 2008 and for Mac OS X in October 2010, and is the first title in the ...
''.
It is also featured in the trailer for the 2008
Coen Brothers
Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
film ''
Burn After Reading
''Burn After Reading'' is a 2008 black comedy spy film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It follows a recently jobless CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) whose misplaced memoirs are found by a pair of dimwitte ...
''.
Samples of the song are also featured on the motoring series ''
Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
''.
Furthermore, "Grounds For Divorce" has also been featured in a promo-ad for the 6th season of the hit TV-show
House
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
, as well as the ''
Rescue Me'' season 5 episode Jump on 25 August 2009. It was also featured in the soundtrack for
Colin McRae: Dirt 2. "Grounds For Divorce" was also a background track in the 2011 season finale of "In Plain Sight" on USA Network. The song also appears on the soundtrack for the video game
Driver: San Francisco in 2011. In 2019 the song also appeared in the season 1 episode "No One's Gonna Harm You, Not While I'm Around" of
The Morning Show, and is used as the closing song.
"Mirrorball" appears on
Skins in 2009 on series 3 episode "Katie and Emily".
A version of the song "One Day Like This", without lyrics, was used as background and theming for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
's coverage of the 2008
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
. It was used in adverts for the film ''
The Soloist
''The Soloist'' is a 2009 drama film directed by Joe Wright, and starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. The plot is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who developed schizophrenia and became homeless. The film was released i ...
'', as well as an episode of ''
Waterloo Road'', and was included in
The Official BBC Children in Need Medley
"The Official BBC Children in Need Medley" is a single by Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band. It is the official Children in Need Single for 2009, and was released on 21 November 2009. The song was shown for the first time on Children in Need ...
.
On 17 January 2009, at
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
in London, the band played the album live with the
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...
(conducted by Mike Dixon), featuring London choir
Chantage
Chantage is a London-based chamber choir conducted by James Davey. Drawing singers from all over the country and all walks of life, the choir won the 2006 Radio 3 Choir of the Year competition.
On 17 January 2009 Chantage backed Mercury Award-w ...
.
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
broadcast the audio recording on Saturday 31 January, whilst the filmed event was made available on BBC interactive television via the
red button Red button may refer to:
*Red Button (digital television), a button on the remote control for certain digital television set top boxes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and used to access interactive television services
**BBC Red Button, a digit ...
.
The band released a special limited edition CD/DVD set of the performance, entitled ''The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road'', on 30 March 2009.
Reception
The album has received nearly unanimous praise from media outlets, including the ''NME'' and
Planet Sound
Planet Sound was a Teletext music page on ITV and Channel 4 in the UK, active from 1997 until 2009. It was broadcast on analogue Teletext from page 340, and on digital Teletext from page 820. From 24 May 2007, Planet Sound was also available to ...
, which both gave Elbow their fourth consecutive 9/10 album rating.
The album won the
Mercury Music Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...
in 2008, an achievement which Guy Garvey declared to be "the best thing that's ever happened to us." The band were previously nominated for the award in 2001 with their debut album ''
Asleep in the Back
''Asleep in the Back'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Elbow, first released in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2001, and in the United States on 22 January 2002. The title track, "Asleep in the Back", was only included as a bonus tr ...
''.
Commercially the album was well received, opening at number five on the UK album charts, but faded away quickly. However, after the Mercury nomination the album saw a revival to gain gold status, with its second single "One Day Like This" re-entering the top 40 singles listing after the award win. The album had a steady chart run afterwards (including a re-entry in the top ten), enabling it to benefit from the busy Christmas market, and eventually reach over 300,000 sales, making it eligible for
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
status. It has since sold 860,000 .
In July 2011, ''The Seldom Seen Kid'' climbed from No. 103 back to No. 59 in the album's 159th charting week, making it having charted for more than 3 years there.
The band also won Best British Group at the 2009 Brit Awards and picked up two awards at the 2009 Ivor Novello Awards. "
One Day Like This" won Best Song and "
Grounds for Divorce
Grounds for divorce are regulations specifying the circumstances under which a person will be granted a divorce. Adultery is the most common grounds for divorce. However, there are countries that view male adultery differently than female adultery ...
" was Best Contemporary Song.
The album was also included in the book ''
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
''.
Track listing
*On the UK version of the album, there are 23 seconds of silence after "Friend of Ours" before "We're Away" begins, making its running time 5:01.
Personnel
;
Elbow
*
Guy Garvey
Guy Edward John Garvey (born 6 March 1974) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and BBC Radio 6 Music presenter. He is the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Elbow.
Early life
Garvey grew up in Bury, Lancashire. His father was a gr ...
– vocals, string and brass arrangements
*Mark Potter – guitars
*Craig Potter – keyboards, trumpet
*
Pete Turner – bass
*Richard Jupp – drums
;
Additional musicians
*Richard Hawley – vocals, lead guitar on "The Fix"
*Ian Burdge – cello, backing vocals
*Prabjote Osahn – violin, backing vocals
*Stella Page – violin, viola, backing vocals
*Ben Parsons – cornet
*Nick Smart – cornet, flugel
*Matt Ball – trombone
*Sheona White – E-flat horn
*Tim Barber – trumpet
*Elbow Choir – backing vocals
*Angela Thwaite – backing vocals
*Louise Turner – backing vocals
;
Production
* Craig Potter – production, mixing
* Danny Evans – additional engineering on "Grounds for Divorce" and "Friend of Ours"
* Danny McTague – additional engineering on "One Day Like This"
* Tim Young – mastering
* Mazen Murad – mastering on "We're Away"
* Oliver East – artwork
* Red Design – design
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Accolades
Singles
* "Grounds for Divorce" (10 March 2008)
eleased and deleted in the same weekUK# 19
** CD: b/w "Hotel Istanbul" – 7:01
** 7" #1: b/w "Our Little Boat" – 2:58
** 7" #2: b/w "A Regret" – 1:09
* "One Day Like This" (18 March 2008 – US; 2 June 2008 – UK) UK# 35
** US: one-track digital download only
** CD: b/w "Lullaby" – 3:13
** 7" #1: b/w "Every Bit the Little Girl" – 4:32
** 7" #2: b/w "Li'l Pissed Charmin' Tune" – 3:44
* "The Bones of You" (29 September 2008)
** Promo CD: "The Bones of You" (radio edit) – 3:06
** Digital download: b/w "The Bones of You" (Live at Manchester Academy) – 4:47
''The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road''
''The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road'' was recorded live with the
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...
at
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
on 17 January 2009. A special limited edition CD/DVD set was released by Fiction Records on 30 March 2009, featured inside a small box with individual card sleeves for each disc, as well as five postcards featuring photos of each band member, and a special booklet with photos commemorating the recording.
CD and DVD track listing
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seldom Seen Kid, The
2008 albums
Elbow (band) albums
Mercury Prize-winning albums
Fiction Records albums
Polydor Records albums
Geffen Records albums