Been listening to Write About Love, the latest from Belle and Sebastian for the last couple of mornings. I'm concluding that, with this record, B&S is a band and not the efforts one person. There are songs by Stevie Jackson and Sarah Martin that, while not in the style of Stuart Murdoch, fit the record and theme.
I'm not pleased with the celebrity cameos, especially the Norah Jones duet and am puzzled that the lovely yet voiceless Carey Mulligan gets a track. Why not include one of the singers from the God Help the Girl soundtrack, or has Murdoch cut away completely from that project?
There are a couple of fine songs on this record, the opener I Didn't See it Coming and I Want the World to Stop are quite infectious. I'm not sure how much longer B&S will sustain itself now that special guest stars are showing up. When will Cousin Oliver add his vocals?
In other news, despite massive efforts at resuscitation, it looks like the hard drive on the macbook is now an ex-hard drive. For the moment, I'm taking the loss rather well. I guess losing a lot of pictures and three years of music does not effect me much. Most of the writing can be reassembled. It's not going to be an easy transition. Realizing that lists and songs are gone, probably forever, will be tough when it hits me.
5 comments:
Not sure if you're (entirely) joking, but the actor who played Cousin Oliver is a singer in the LA power pop scene.
I've seen Belle and Sebastian live twice in the past week (Thursday in Brooklyn, Saturday in Las Vegas as part of Matador's Lost Weekend), and they were terrific both nights. They came across as a truly collaborative group, and the new songs they played sounded great (if I remember correctly, Sarah Martin sang the Mulligan part for "Write About Love."
Count me in disagreement here too Mystery-man. I've been holding tickets for their show on the 14th of October in DC since mid-summer and can't wait.
James - I'm well aware that Robbie Rist is an indie musician.
I'm sure their live show is outstanding and am bummed the closest they came to me on this tour was Chicago. I'd have went.
I don't think the new record is a bust, at all, but the duets turned me off. I'd rather hear more Sarah or Stevie than a one off.
The baby did not disapprove of this video when we listened to it this morning.
I'm impressed by baby approval :)
Now, can the baby give me proper instruction on how to put the hard drive in the macbook so that it's formatted to mac and recognized by the OS ;)
Post a Comment