The Best Of

Like a star streaking a wintry night sky, you can chart the progression of British indie heroes Elbow’s two-decade knack for bruised, room-filling emotion across this bumper compendium. Pulling from their first seven studio albums, there’s equal room given to sweeping, early breakthroughs (“Newborn”), growling blasts of anthemic blues (“Grounds for Divorce”) and those big-hearted hymnals that came to define their career (“One Day Like This”). And their are clues for the Mancunian band’s future too. “Kindling (Fickle Flame)” is reborn as a bone-warming duet with John Grant, while “Golden Slumbers” sees Guy Garvey imbue The Beatles with his matchless, twinkly melancholy.

When it comes to the Ramsbottom-bred boys of the band Elbow, their great, emotional, epic-sounding songs made for fine singles, but more often than not,...