The Seldom Seen Kid
by Elbow
eBay
Condition: Very Good
Elbow bestography
The Seldom Seen Kid is ranked as the best album by Elbow.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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The Seldom Seen Kid track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Seldom Seen Kid rankings
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The Seldom Seen Kid ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 586 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 6 hours ago | This_is_handsome | 769 | 79/100 |
| ! | 12/29/2025 17:35 | mutant | 1,634 | 55/100 |
| ! | 12/11/2025 16:20 | Nishy | 159 | 80/100 |
| ! | 12/07/2025 15:19 | Araldo | 1,471 | 80/100 |
| ! | 11/29/2025 04:04 | Exist-en-ciel | 6,412 | 70/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.0/100, a mean average of 76.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.6.
The Seldom Seen Kid favourites
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The Seldom Seen Kid comments
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Personal favorite Elbow album. Most consistent right through with no weak points.
They sound a lot like Coldplay and Sting. The album has good production, and the singing and music are nice but it's pretty boring, maybe I'd like it more if I can past the Coldplay/Sting thing.
Brad1770 10/24/2022 07:11 | #290757
I’ve never understood the Elbow thing finding various albums in their catalogue competent enough but ultimately a bit of a snooze feast, however this one actually has some interesting moments and in particular the Un-Elbow (which is probably why I dig it) track “The Fix”
Album Rating: 75.18
(827/11)
1. "Starlings" 5:05 - 69
2. "The Bones of You" (contains elements of "Summertime" by George Gershwin, Dubose Heyward, Dorothy Heyward & Ira Gershwin) 4:49 - 70
3. "Mirrorball" 5:50 - 71
4. "Grounds for Divorce" 3:39 - 86
5. "An Audience with the Pope" 4:27 - 69
6. "Weather to Fly" 4:29 - 64
7. "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" 5:14 - 89
8. "The Fix" (Elbow, Richard Hawley) 4:27 - 69
9. "Some Riot" 5:23 - 82
10. "One Day Like This" 6:34 - 80
11. "Friend of Ours" 4:38 - 78
Bonus Track (UK)
12. "We're Away" (UK bonus track) 1:59 (N/A - 66 - N/A)
Elbow are one of my favourite bands, and the best live band I've seen by far. This album has a few filler tracks in the middle, but the fact that even with these I still give it a 100/100 rating says a lot. Highlights are One Day Like This, Grounds for Divorce, The Bones of You and the final track Friends of Ours which is just a beautiful track, especially when you find out who the subject of the song is and the story behind it. I love Guy Garvey's lyrics and this album has a few gems - my favourite being "You are the only thing in any room you're ever in" from Starlings. And love the lyrics on An Audience with the Pope - "I have an audience with the pope and I'm saving the world at 8, but if she says she needs me everybody's gonna have to wait". I'm quite surprised this album isn't higher up on the overall chart.
Whenever someone using the adjective "mature" to describe music I cringe. Yet I also think of this album
Boltzmann 03/15/2020 10:36 | #248752
He sounds a bit like Damon Albarn, but other than that the first three songs are really well-written, calming and soulful. Then he comes with a macho, arena rock-ish track, which confused me a lot and sounds like shit. But after that he goes back to what he's good at. Overall, a great experience, but one song needs to be amputated (but that doesn't influence my rating though). Not often do my opinions on songs change so wildly from track to track on the same album.
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planetneutral 01/28/2018 21:31 | #206716
Approachable enough, but it's not immediately apparent to me why it's so highly regarded.
Fine acoustic based rock. But without wanting to sound too cruel, nothing you haven't heard before. Quite surprised it's in the 300's on this site.
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