This is a good read: http://godisamanc.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/freshly-painted-angels-raymond-carver-and-guy-garvey/

It is indeed. Thanks!
I've cried, too.

The album version is amazing. The choir really makes the song so much more emotional. Still one of the best tracks

I have to admit to being wrong in feeling the album version didn't measure up to the live video. That now feels a bit naked after several listens of the album version! Still excellent, but I am falling in love with the album version.

Is it perfectly normal to keep shifting, rethinking, refeeling with regard to versions of songs.... not just that but the way you rank song quality on an album? I am so fickle it's untrue!

I now adore Open Arms... Where did that come from? I was so critical to begin with. I think it felt a little corny in a superficial way.... but it really isn't. It's just a lovely song, its arms.... wide open!

That was corny. I know.

Just nice, nice song!

Sometimes a song can make your neck and back go tingly. And sometimes music can touch you in a profound way that makes you cry.

Lippy Kids makes me cry every time I hear it. And I still haven't worked out why it resonates with my very being so much.

Elbow now have a special place in my soul!

The new single out 8th Aug. B-Side Open Arms at St Pauls

Living in Britain you can get a bit jaded with the largely right-wing media and their belief that all teenagers are knife-wielding thugs. You begin to wonder if you're in the minority by thinking otherwise. Maybe it is still a minority belief, but thank god that if you share that belief you belong to an elite bunch of thinkers that include this fabulous band. As Guy put it so well in one of his introductions to this song, "How stupid to be afraid of people you don't even know".

I love the line "don't they know these days are golden". If you're still in touch with your childhood, or you have children yourself, you can easily relate to the spark of imagination in a young person, the possibility that anything and everything is achievable. Wonderful sentiment.

Just bought the "Lippy Kids" single through Amazon UK.

Even though I've listened to "Open Arms" from the St. Paul's Cathedral set at least a dozen times, the b-side version of it on the "Lippy Kids" is different enough from the Absolute webcast to be interesting. For one thing, Guy's introduction to the song is different; Absolute edited out some of Guy's dialogue with the audience. For another, the instrumentation is mixed a little differently. I didn't like this version of "Open Arms" when I first heard it, but it has grown on me.