Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	82/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Alternative Press	8/10
Entertainment Weekly	B−
The Guardian
Los Angeles Times
NME	9/10
Pitchfork Media	7.4/10 (2002) 8.4/10 (2009)
Q
Spin	6/10
Uncut

Asleep in the Back is the debut studio album by English rock band Elbow, first released in May 2001. The title track, "Asleep in the Back", was only included as a bonus track on later editions of the album after it had been released as a single and became the band's first Top 20 hit. The album release came in four different versions: the 12-track version, two 11-track versions only featuring either "Asleep in the Back" (later editions) or "Can't Stop" (UK version) and a 10-track version including neither of them. The record was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2001.

Though Asleep in the Back was the first Elbow album to be released, it was not the first to be recorded. An album's worth of recorded material had been scrapped by the band several years earlier after they were dropped by their first major label, Island Records.

A 2CD/1DVD deluxe edition of the album was released in the UK on 2 November 2009. The release included almost all tracks of the near impossible to find The Noisebox EP: a live version of "George Lassoes the Moon" was included instead of the studio version.

All tracks written by Elbow; all lyrics by Guy Garvey.

In the UK, there were four singles released from the album:

Also, three EPs preceded the album's release, all of which included versions of songs that later appeared on Asleep in the Back:

Elbow

Additional musicians

Credits

Q listed Asleep in the Back as one of the best 50 albums of 2001.

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Wikipedia