Hello again, Shortly after seeing Belle & Sebastian in concert I acquired their new album. Before discussing it, however, may I refer you to this website: http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=10200. It concerns a trip Stuart & Chris made to the Middle of the East to look at the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians and stuff. There are some nice pictures there, including one of Stuart climbing through a gap in that wall thing the Israelis are building. I can't remember whether anyone has posted a link to this before, and I can't check the archives, so maybe you will find the website interesting, or maybe it is all old hat to you at this stage. Anyway, what about that album? And what about that Alexis Petridis fellow? I was amused by how he scoved at B&S fans before expounding the most unreconstructed old-school B&S fan position - that the band essentially went rubbish the moment Stuart let anyone else sing or write a song. God bless him. I’ve realty had it with this lazy position, which neglects to point out the pleasures that derive from listening to a record and hearing several voices singing. Also, this position conveniently forgets the many clunkers Stuart himself has written. I showed my disapproval of Mr Petridis’ review by mailing him a human ear. However, when Petridis moves on from cliché he gets a bit more interesting. For the new album, the band went to America and worked with this producer guy who is apparently relatively well-known, but not so well known as Trevor Horn. However, the album is to some extent of a piece with “Dear Catastrophe Waitress”, being heavily produced in a way that previous B&S outings were not. It’s just maybe not as good. Actually, it’s definitely not as good – where DCW was a career highlight, this is the kind of record where you start to wonder whether you can finally give up on your favourite band. Or so it does on a first listen. Subsequently it goes ever better on the ear, so I may eventually conclude that “The Life Pursuit” is the greatest work of art the human race will ever produce. I kind of doubt it, however, as at this stage I really am beginning to conclude that over all it's not *that* good. But what does it sound like? Like I said, it sounds produced. The songs, particularly towards the beginning of the record, have the kind of jauntiness you get from people who listen to a lot of disco and Northern Soul (without actually sounding that like disco or Northern Soul). Later tracks are mostly a bit less engaging or a bit subtler, with ‘Dress Up In You’ sounding the most like something from one of their pre-DCW albums. Some of the others seem a bit unformed, with ‘We Are The Sleepyheads’ being particularly guilty here. And having two down-tempo whingers to finish off the album was probably a major contributor to my initial impression that this record was a bit duff. On balance, the good tracks are really good, if you like the produced B&S sound that does not sound like classic B&S. And like all B&S albums bar “Tigermilk” the good songs are weighed down by filler (all Murdoch-written – the one Stevie Jackson tune is a charmer). Some people have wondered whether this will be the record that breaks B&S through to the big time. I think not - if they haven't made it to the big-time by now I really do not think they ever will. On the other hand, given how popular B&S are now, maybe it is time to conclude that they broke through some time ago. Maybe so indeed. Anyway, that's all for now. If any of you are in NOTTINGHAM, keep an eye out for me next weekend, as that is where I will be. Bless you all, DV +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+