Elbow
I bought the second album, Cast of Thousands, when it came out, and have subsequently bought all 4:-
Asleep in the Back V2 2002
Cast of Thosands V2 2003
Leaders of the Free World V2 2005
The Seldom Seen Kid Polydor 2008
Asleep in the back is a very good album, and with the benefit of retrospect, you can see Elbow have enough ideas and musicianship to be a long term prospect rather than a flash in the pan.
Cast of Thousands is a truly great album, there are more musical ideas ( that work ) here than on the last 4 Oasis albums. It expands on the work done in AITB massively and is one of those records you can come back to every 3 months or so and still love.
Leaders of the Free World, is a little patchier, but still with great songs, Station Approach and Forget Myself in particular.
The Seldom Seen Kid is a return to form shown on COT. A majestic, brooding album that covers a number of issues, mostly, I get the feeling, of what it feels like to be approaching early middle age and the melancholy moods this brings. However, when you listen closely, the songs are nearly always optimistic in outlook. Mirrorball, Learning to Fly and The Fix ( co-written with Richard Hawley )all have this mix of intense, image inducing lyrics allied to superb music and musicainship.
One final point, and of particular relevance to you ZG guys, is the production and mastering of this album. Craig Potter, Elbow pianist produced and mixed this album. He, or Elbow collectively, have decided to go against the grain of turning everything up to 11. There is a trend amongst record labels to maximise sales of CDs and downloads by having the volume artificially turned up 'at birth'. Apparently, the louder something is recorded, the higher the volume sales. But this is at the expense of the inherent dynamism in the music. I am sure many of you remember recording music on to tape and using the VU meter so as to just get the peaks tipping it into red. Well now the execs at record labels are going against this wisdom. However, some recording artists are kicking against this trend, and Elbow are one of them.
Follow this link for further info:-
http://www.turnmeup.org/
TTFN