I discovered Elbow and a whole range of other artists on a series of disks entitled "Acoustic". I bought "Acoustic 2" first (that had Powder Blue on it), then 3 and only recently located 1. They are double CD's and I can't recommend them highly enough. Some of the artists I already knew and loved - Starsailor, Travis, Mercury Rev, David Gray, Damien Rice, Aimee Mann, Beth Orton, Radiohead... Others were new to me - Zero 7, I am Kloot, Badly Drawn Boy, Lambchop, Quinn, Muki...

They are published on The Echo Label/V2 Music Limited and I feel quite sure you'd enjoy them Jeff!

Only yesterday while browsing through Kmart I found another Acoustic collection - same labelling and publishing details, but a more Australian version (with the Copyright being owned by Mushroom Records - an Aussie company). There is still an Elbow track, plus Starsailor, Turin Brakes, Brendan Benson, Grandaddy, Radiohead, Doves, Jeff Buckley, Badly Drawn Boy, Ryan Adams and Stereophonics... However, around half of the CD would be Australian content - Missy Higgins, Neil Finn (NZ), Tex Perkins, Eskimo Joe (Perth), The Sleepy Jackson (Perth), Dan Brodie, Dan Kelly, Tim Rogers, Paul Kelly, The Panics (Perth), Augie March, Motor Ace, George and Xavier Rudd. I've not listened to the whole thing yet - only in the car for the half an hour it took to get home from Albany - but it's excellent.

As for Elbow - after hearing them on these compilations, I tracked down their albums. You're ahead of me though - I don't have the latest one yet!

Sorry for the long-winded response...  :-)