Asleep in the Back

Asleep in the Back
Studio album by Elbow
Released	7 May 2001
Recorded	1997–2001
Genre	Alternative rock art rock progressive rock[1] post-Britpop[2]
Length	61:41
Label	V2
Producer	Steve Osborne, Ben Hillier, Danny Evans, Elbow
Elbow chronology
The Any Day Now EP (2001) Asleep in the Back (2001) Cast of Thousands (2003)
Singles from Asleep in the Back
"Red" Released: 23 April 2001 "Powder Blue" Released: 9 July 2001 "Newborn" Released: 8 October 2001 "Asleep in the Back"/"Coming Second" Released: 4 February 2002

Asleep in the Back is the debut studio album by English rock band Elbow, first released in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2001, and in the United States on 22 January 2002.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.