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Guy Garvey is one of Britain’s finest singers and lyricists. I hope he realises this – he always looks rather crestfallen – even if not enough of us do. The Bury quintet have excelled at music of beauty, heartache, darkness and mordant wit over the course of three exceptional albums. Many bands give off sparks; Elbow plug you straight into the emotional mains. Their fourth album, The Seldom Seen Kid, is released on March 17.

1 Station Approach Alighting at Manchester Piccadilly, Garvey draws rare comfort from familiarity. Their most beautiful song.

2 Scattered Black and Whites Ambushed by memories on their debut, both tune and textures are quintessentially Elbow.

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Background

• Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

• Elbow given room to grow

• Elbow download

• Top Five Gigs: Elbow, Goldfrapp, Bjork, Portishead

3 Switching Off The shattering doomed-romance centrepiece of Cast of Thousands.

4 Powder Blue A drug-enslaved couple inspire in the watching Garvey a contempt tinged with compassion – and relief.

5 My Very Best Album three: the band fashion a dense sonic seedbed for Garvey’s regret-fest.

6 Not a Job “Leave me and the plants die,” the singer threatens, sardonic and deadly as ever.

7 Forget Myself A clanking, writhing soundscape and a lyric of defiance, from their third album, Leaders of the Free World.

8 Love Blown Down A haunted, haunting B-side from the Cast of Thousands sessions.

9 None One One of their earliest songs, up so close you can hear the piano stool creak.

10 Puncture Repair A snippet of private grief, stripped of ornamentation, shorn of hope.

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