Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| BBC Music | (highly favourable) |
| Drowned in Sound | |
| The Guardian | |
| The Independent | |
| MusicOMH | |
| NME | |
| Pitchfork Media | (7.8/10) |
| The Skinny | |
| The Sun | |
| The Times | |
| Yahoo! Music | |
The album has received nearly unanimous praise from media outlets, including the NME and Planet Sound, which both gave Elbow their fourth consecutive 9/10 album rating.
The album won the Mercury Music Prize in 2008, an achievement which Guy Garvey declared to be "the best thing that's ever happened to us." The band were previously nominated for the award in 2001 with their debut album Asleep in the Back.
Commercially the album was well received, opening at number five on the UK album charts, but faded away quickly. However, after the Mercury nomination the album saw a revival to gain gold status, with its second single "One Day Like This" re-entering the top 40 singles listing after the award win. The album had a steady chart run afterwards (including a re-entry in the top ten), enabling it to benefit from the busy Christmas market, and eventually reach over 300,000 sales, making it eligible for platinum status. It has since sold 860,000 as of September 2011.
In July 2011, The Seldom Seen Kid climbed from No. 103 back to No. 59 in the album's 159th charting week, making it having charted for more than 3 years there.
The band also won Best British Group at the 2009 Brit Awards and picked up two awards at the 2009 Ivor Novello Awards. "One Day Like This" won Best Song and "Grounds for Divorce" was Best Contemporary Song.
Read more about this topic: The Seldom Seen Kid
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)