Fractionals

I go through these phases where Elbow not only seem like one of the finest bands on the planet (which, in a pinch, is a position I would defend pretty much all of the time), but they also seem to very me in an ineffable and probably pretentious and wrong-headed sense that I kind of resent anyone else listening to their music. On the one hand I kind of feel like Joe does about the National here in terms of the type of person the songs are by/for, and on the other, while I'm sure more people than Guy Garvey and myself that feel like "Asleep in the Back," "Station Approach," "Buttons and Zips" and etc., some irrational part of me just want to clutch their music to myself so fiercely that no-one else can hear.

So I went to their site and looked up their current tour, because the fact that I've never seen them live gives me a deep, painful pang in my chest (the one time I almost went, when they were touring with Doves, wound up falling through, which I now bitterly regret). They're playing one Canadian date, the 6th of May. In Vancouver. I could weep, and I don't mean figuratively. Ah well - next time!

(The Seldom Seen Kid is very good as well, on which more later, perhaps? Four great albums in a row is quite an achievement, in any case)