Elbow — The Seldom Seen Kid

The Seldom Seen Kid

Polydor U.K.

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

04/29/2008 4:15pm

I was excited to hear an E-bow slide across a guitar at the beginning of "Starlings," the first track on The Seldom Seen Kid. I wondered if Elbow's new thing was aping Sigur Ros instead of Coldplay. While this still wouldn't be original, it would be better than sounding like a poor version of the band the U.K. said was most likely to put them to sleep. Unfortunately, The Seldom Seen Kid is like every other Elbow album, which means it sounds like Coldplay and uses the same repetitive melodies amidst downplayed instrumentation. "Mirrorball" and "The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver" both get stuck in the same guitar ostinatos, and the strings layered over both tracks are backgrounds which could be much more. Then there's "One Day Like This," which arrives near the end of the record and erupts into beautiful waves of instrumentation backed by a choir. Good things come to those who wait, but it shouldn't take an entire album.