Manchester’s ELBOW release “The Best Of” collection

Manchester's ELBOW release “The Best Of” collection

Manchester band elbow just wrapped a successful and SOLD-OUT run across North America this month, which included a late night television performance on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they performed current single “Magnificent (she says)” [WATCH HERE], and “One Day Like This” [WATCH HERE], plus A day-time television performance and interview with esteemed host Anthony Mason on CBS’ This Morning: Saturday. Watch their performance of “Magnificent (she Says)” HERE, “Grounds For Divorce” HERE and “All Disco” HERE. The band also played awe-inspiring live sessions for WNYC’s Soundcheck [LISTEN HERE] and KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic [WATCH HERE].

On Friday, November 24 the band also released their latest full-length album “The Best Of” via Republic Records in North America. A collection of their best moments to date, the album covers two CDs (in its deluxe form) and features tracks from the band’s seven studio albums, highlighting their incredible musical output over the last eighteen years. From the release of their “Newborn” EP in 1999, the collection stretches all the way to 2017, with the bonus track of the band’s version of The Beatles “Golden Slumbers,” as heard on the current John Lewis Christmas commercial directed by Michel Gondry WATCH BELOW.

“Best Of’s are a good way of introducing new fans to a big back catalogue.” Explains frontman and lyricist Guy Garvey on the band’s reasoning behind this release. “My first Leonard Cohen album was ‘The Best Of’, same with Fleetwood Mac and Nick Drake. It took ages for us to decide what should go on ours but we got there in the end. We are really proud of this. It’s full of memories.”

“The Best Of” comes in two versions. The standard version features global hits “One Day Like This” and “Grounds For Divorce,” alongside their current US single “Magnificent (She Says),” taken from the band’s current studio album and UK Number One, “Little Fictions.” Earlier work is represented by live favorites “Mirrorball,” “Scattered Black and Whites,” “Leaders Of The Free World” and “Lippy Kids,” “a gorgeous meditation on adolescence” (The Guardian) and a stand out moment in all elbow live shows.

The second version is the deluxe release, which goes further into the band’s history and album releases, again spanning their entire career to date. The song that first brought the band to mass public attention, “Newborn,” is included along with its follow up and fellow NME Single Of The Week, “Any Day Now” and “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver’” the song the band performed live on the night that they won the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for “The Seldom Seen Kid.” This version also contains the band’s most recent original recording, “Kindling (Fickle Flame)” featuring John Grant.

The album highlights an incredible ongoing career which has encompassed two Ivor Novello awards, the quadruple platinum album “The Seldom Seen Kid” and two UK Number One albums; 2014’s “The Take Off and Landing of Everything” and this year’s “Little Fictions.” In that time, the band have won 2008’s Mercury Music Prize (for “The Seldom Seen Kid”), the 2009 BRITS ‘Best British Group’ and a host of NME, Q and Mojo Awards.

elbow have been lauded for one of the landmark Pyramid Stage performances at Glastonbury Festival, collaborated with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra. In 2012 they were commissioned to write ‘First Steps’ which sound-tracked the BBC’S London Olympics TV coverage with the band also performing at the closing ceremony in the Olympic Stadium to a global television audience of 750 million people. This year’s secret appearance at Glastonbury’s Park Stage drew a record crowd on site and was the most watched set from the festival on BBC.

Always a band that has attracted deserved critical praise for their recordings, (elbow were the first act in history to receive four consecutive 9/10 album reviews from NME), this best of album is the perfect introduction to the amazing musical legacy to date of one of the country’s most beloved and most successful acts, demonstrating that most rare thing in modern music; a band whose story and influence continues to grow with every release.

 

“The Best Of”
Standard Version
Grounds for Divorce
Magnificent (She Says)
Lippy Kids
One Day Like This
The Bones of You
My Sad Captains
Leaders of the Free World
Mirrorball
Fugitive Motel
New York Morning
Great Expectations
The Birds
Scattered Black and Whites
bonus track
Golden Slumbers

“The Best Of”
Deluxe Version (bonus tracks)
Any Day Now
Fly Boy Blue / Lunette
Weather to Fly
Station Approach
Switching Off
Little Fictions
This Blue World
Kindling (Fickle Flame) featuring John Grant
Newborn
Puncture Repair
The Night Will Always Win
Starlings
The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver
Dear Friends

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*