Elbow - Cast Of Thousands
[V2]

With any real competition well out of the way, Elbow's second album couldn't have been released at a more suitable time. This could be the opportunity Elbow need to rise to such high status levels of say, The Doves. 'Asleep In The Back' was the obvious sound of a band's desperate struggle to finally get noticed, now, after the media success comes the mellower, slightly chirpier side of Elbow.

Nowhere near as immediate as the debut, 'Cast Of Thousands' will surely have less of an impact and will probably not do as commercially well. Although
the album is very similar to their first, it lacks any obvious singles besides the already released 'Fallen Angel'. This is easily the strongest track here too, unfortunately, seeing as the debut had tons of possible
hits.

Songs like 'Buttons and Zips' are different to anything Elbow has done before, and where they truly shine. Coming across with the same vibe as 'Don't Mix
Your Drinks', it's where the band experiment with slightly different structures as opposed to top chart entries. Nice follow up album, but could have seen Elbow experimenting more. There's too many other soft indie bands around, namely Starsailor and Doves, so this could have been the chance to expand to other regions.