CD Reviews

ELBOW & r & & r & The Seldom Seen Kid & r & & r & 4 STARS & r & & r & & lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & I & lt;/span & n college, I had this half-British neighbor who bragged that he "only liked emotional music." Bullshit. His four-inch CD binder held Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing and The Get Up Kids' Four-Minute Mile, but where was Miles Davis' Porgy and Bess? Today, I bet Mr. EmoBrit is as ignorant of Elbow's recent, soul-twisting (but hipster-hairless) release.





The Manchester-based band's fourth isn't much different than its first: a slow-rolling bittersweet symphony (eat that, R. Ashcroft), heavy on the bass, dusted lightly with orchestral and choral backup. Frontman Guy Garvey can still fill a room with soul, and what sounds, on first and second spin, like monotony turns out to be a developed and consistent style. Just as a single focused pitch shatters crystal, Elbow's sound -- at its most wrenching in the album's belt-along, "The Bones of You" -- twists the hearts of certain listeners, usually lonely, post-Peter Pannites. Sampling "Summertime" helps.





-- DAVE MAASS





DOWNLOAD: "An Audience with the Pope"





BRITISH SEA POWER


Do You Like Rock Music?


2 STARS


& lt;span class= & quot;dropcap & quot; & T & lt;/span & he third full-length release by British Sea Power splits the difference between what was interesting on its first album and what wasn't on its second. The result sounds like an unintended concept album. Do I like rock music? Yes. But the album as a whole sounds less like rock and a great deal more like something someone living under the largest and heaviest piece of granite in the world might dream up in order to fulfill all of the clich & eacute;s of the industry. Bombastic? Check. Anthemic? Check. Stadium-performance ready? Check.





The indie pop gets buried under walls of guitar shimmer on "Atom" and synth-heavy drudgery on "Waving Flags." And everything else sounds familiar (but not in a good way). If put into heavy rotation for two weeks, the album might open up. But by then, too many other options will be available.





-- CAREY MURPHY





DOWNLOAD: "Lights Out for Darker Skies"