Unfortunately, we didn’t drive out to Los Angeles for Elbow’s show on Friday night at the Avalon. But I’ve decided, unilaterally – all on my own, without help from the blogs or Pitchfork – that the band’s new record, The Seldom Seen Kid, is my favorite of 2008 so far. There’s so much to it, but the songwriting is never so confounding that you can’t understand what Guy Garvey is singing about or at least relate to it in some way, especially on a track like One Day Like This.
It’s just a shame the band didn’t perform The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver on this session on KEXP. (Subscribe to KEXP’s Live Performances Podcast.) You should seek that song out if you haven’t heard it yet.
However, we learn between songs in this session that Garvey (aside from being hungover … how does he still sing like this??) has been doing some writing/collaborating with Massive Attack for their new record. Also, Garvey has a radio show on the BBC called Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour. (For his last show, he played No One’s Gonna Love You, my favorite song off Band of Horses’ Cease to Begin.)
And check out Garvey’s tour blog for Blender. Apparently, he is the king of all media.