What song would you use to introduce someone to Elbow?

Probably Mirrorball or The Birds. Both of them show the soft and the louder side of the band, both include instrumentals.

elbowismymuse wrote:

In this vein, I would probably go for Red or Powder Blue. If I were to use TSSK it'd be Loneliness due to its power.

My choice exactly! TSSK is my favourate Elbow album but if I had to introduce someone to their music,I would pick Powder Blue,Red or Fugitive Motel to recommend.These three all have that kind of beautiful melodies which immediately catch your attention.Also,in my opinion they somehow represent the entire Elbow catalog - beautiful,melancholy,touching,and with great lyrics.

I got my Dad build a rocket boys! and he was crying his eyes out to Lippy Kids on the way to work on first listen so I'd go for that (he'd only known One Day Like This beforehand).

For me, Scattered Balack and Whites every time.

My 4 year old daughter loves Starlings. She's into trumpets at the moment, though...

I think varies from person to person. For one of my best friends, who since high school has relied on others (meaning, me) to find new music for him, I played "The Fix", and he was hooked. For another friend who is very into vocals and melody, it was "Great Expectations" that did it. My wife is very resistant to new music. Even after ten years of marriage, I'm still not sure why. For the longest time I tried to get her into Elbow, but no matter which song I played she seemed indifferent. So I gave up. A couple years ago though, on a six hour drive back from visiting family in Oklahoma, I played TSSK straight through. No real response at the time, but a few days later she asked what that album was we listened to in the car. Huh. I thought she was asleep. It quickly became one of her favorites. Go figure.

I love Starlings, and I'm not into trumpets!

It depends to whom I'll introduce it. For my mum I'll use "some riots" and for friends "mexican standoff" for exemple. But they are so many good songs that's hard to choose

i've had only one introduction to elbow where elbow gained a fan. first song was scattered b&w

First song I ever heard was "Weather to Fly" - that got me hooked.
Not sure it'd work for other people, perhaps too mellow.

To be honest I'd say One Day Like This or Grounds for Divorce as the best to introduce, granted they may just be considered overpopular singles here, but they're still great songs, and they're popular for a reason I suppose.

But music is a funny thing - I personally hate it when people "introduce" music to me, but I understand why they do it - I always get the urge to make people love the music I love, but it just doens't work like that.
If you think they'd like Elbow, just say that and leave it there - then the magic of discovery will be left to them, and they simply might just not like it.
Imagine if the first time you heard an Elbow song someone was leaning over your shoulder looking like this:

It'd put you off.

Sometimes the reason I love Elbow is that very few people around me also love them to the extent I do

Recently I had a debate with a friend about "which are the better band" , clearly I was saying elbow , but she was saying the killers , so we agreed we would listen to a song that the other one had selected , so i sent her the link to "Mexican Standoff" and she liked it (Although it would have been my very best , but i couldn't find it)

^ I like them both, but I like Elbow more. I actually got off The Killers for a little bit after "Sam's Town" came out. Of course, this has since changed, and I'm more receptive of it now ("Uncle Jonny" is an awesome tune.), but I still think it's their weakest album.