I've been a fan of Elbow since accepting a spare ticket to see them at Edinburgh's Liquid Room about 6 years ago. They made a big impression on me that night and I return to their music again and again. My Asleep in the Back CD probably saw the inside of the CD player more than any other album during the first half of 2003 only to be usurped by the Cast of Thousands CD that summer. Leaders of the Free World didn't grab me as much as the previous albums, I found it to be rather uneven but it was still a good enough collection of songs. It was with a good deal of anticipation that I first hit the "Play" button on my iPod Shuffle holding the newly released The Seldom Seen Kid.

The band chose to record, produce and mix the album themselves and they have clearly lavished loving attention to every aspect of the task. Elbow's multiple layers of sound all combine to produce grand orchestral rock music which simply outclasses the vast majority of their peers. It is not only in purely sonic terms that the band outclass their peers, the personally expressive poetry of the lyrics and the bittersweet melancholy of the band's melodies raise them far beyond the level occupied by either Snow Patrol or Coldplay.

Asleep in the Back retains a favoured place in my musical heart for its almost complete perfection but it has now been joined there by The Seldom Seen Kid. A beautifully wrought and emotionally provocative album that reveals new and wonderful depths on each repeat listen.