While I'm a sucker for the man children who populate Judd Apatow's movies, part of me thinks they should all be forced to sit in a room and listen to Elbow's album, Seldom Seen Kid. In their new release (which drops in the U.S. tomorrow!), the British rockers are sitting tall at the big kids' table, making fresh music about serious life issues like love and loss—perhaps a byproduct of the fact that a few band members recently became parents for the first time.

On foot stompin' songs like the first single, "Grounds For Divorce," frontman Guy Garvey's haunting, bluesy vocals are the perfect match for cheeky lyrics ("I've been working on a cocktail/ Called grounds for divorce"), tribal beats and a hard bass line (paging all fans of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds or The Raconteurs). "We hope we have made a record that is as exhilarating, dramatic and personal to listen to as it was to make," Garvey says. "It's a welcome to some amazing new little people. It's love, loss, birth, death, dads, lads and a celebration of friendship by 5 very old friends (17 years now!). It's all in there and it's definitely the best we could do."

But don't assume that fatherhood or newfound success has changed them that much: "It drives me mad when a band compromises everything to sell records—they're wasting such an opportunity. If you're going to wear skinny jeans, have s**t hair and write s**t songs you may as well be on a reality TV show, because you're putting fame before art."

Now that's rock 'n roll, baby.

Elbow plays Avalon on May 9th. For your chance to win a pair of tickets to the show, email us here!

- Caroline Stanley

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