Dear Sinister, You know, with all of these posts about the new album, I'm reminded, as I occasionally am, that even in this small pink corner of the world called Sinister we all seem to regard Belle and Sebastian in very different ways. I suppose this is a good thing, but it makes me feel I have to explain what I love about this band before I say all the other stuff I'm going to say. Stuart Murdoch once said: << I sincerely think all great music comes from lyrics. I'd love it if something British knocked me off my feet tomorrow, but the last British music to really knock me down was the Smiths. >> And sometimes I feel a little sorry for Stuart that he is who he is, because the last British music to really knock me down was Belle and Sebastian, and I'm sure it would be the same for him if he *wasn't* Belle and Sebastian, if you see what I mean. But the reason I thought of that quote is because of the first sentence. All the music I truly love comes from lyrics. There are very few songs that manage to describe certain feelings, situations, certain things about the world as well as Stuart's do. I think this is part of the reason I've never subscribed to the idea that b+s are twee. I listen to their songs and they describe the world around me, they wake me up to things I hadn't seen before. Unlike the narrowness and artificiality the label "twee" implies, I actually think his lyrics have both lyrical breadth and truth. He writes about the beauty of the world surrounding him, with an air of curiosity. It's probably because of this that I've rather enjoyed the diary Stuart has been keeping over the last year or so. Some would say that the diary somewhat scatters the mystique that the band have. I think that assumes that the world in his songs was entirely made up, and reading about the real world of belle and sebastian tarnishes the make-believe one. I think the two are merely different sides of the same coin. Often his diary entries, like his sleevenotes, come across as longhand versions of his songs. My favourite b+s album is If You're Feeling Sinister, but, you know, I think my favourite single (or ep) is I'm Waking Up To Us. They're very different records, but I think they have equally strong lyrical voices. And, as with the best of their output, strong lyrics and strong melody go hand in hand. I'd also compare a lot of the better stuff on the new album to the songs on their last single. This is where I think that Pitchfork review entirely misses the mark. The heritage of the more diverse songs on this album lies in songs like Electronic Renaissance, Simple Things, Shoot the Sexual Athlete and I'm Waking Up to Us, and couldn't be more different to Legal Man. Ah, I've rambled on a bit too much. I don't think I'll be able to fit a proper review into this envelope, so I'll send it separately. Robin x ps: at work today I wrote down this: SIMOB DCW ISWM PNYC IAC YDSM WUIB LA DMAFOM SL Anyone else agree?? pps: If you want to save the hassle of reading my album review, just read Richard Rask's and mine's the opposite. _________________________________________________________________ Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+