Belle & Sebastian
Record review
Reviewed by Melanie Haupt, Fri., March 10, 2006
Belle & Sebastian
The Life Pursuit (Matador)
The ninth full-length from Belle & Sebastian is innovative and not. All the usual elements appear on this particular Life Pursuit: precisely layered folksy twee-pop, impeccable harmonies, and clean melodic lines. The brilliance resides in the vivid storytelling. "Act of the Apostle" finds singer-songwriter Stuart Murdoch capturing the smallest moments and zooming in on them, like the image of a young girl putting her head on her desk in a moment of emotional exhaustion. "I took a photograph of you in the herbaceous border" from "Another Sunny Day" is perhaps a bit too precious, but it's a minor misstep in an otherwise impressive bit of writing. "The Blues Are Still Blue" toys with the notion of colors bleeding in the laundry, a bit of the mundane elevated to the level of art. It's all quite fun, like a long lost Zombies LP, which is a bit of a turn for the Scottish septet, who also indulges in flirtations with genre, such as the funk overtones of "Song for Sunshine." The Life Pursuit is certainly nothing new in the pop lexicon, but Murdoch's keen observational eye gives these songs vivid life. (Wednesday, March 15, 11pm @ Stubb's)
