Hi Sinister, Nick referred us to a piece by Tom Ewing at

http://www.freakytrigger.com/belleseb.html.

In case you didn't get quite to the end, but I highly doubt that given the frequency with which he's quoted these days, Nick, not Tom, expensive bathos was for the Eminem psychologist, cheap for us. I could agree with many things that Tom Ewing wrote (about the actual songs) but arrive at a different conclusion. B & S fanbase 'They've less in common with British outsider idols than with indie rock in America, a feedback loop of incestuous bands, intimate fans, and gigs, labels and zines which piggy back on one another constantly to create the energy and fervency of the scene.' 'With Belle And Sebastian, the fans are the music: what made the band famous were their pen-portraits of bruised young romantics, and a lot of their best songs feel like character studies of the people who love them. Its as if, having sold the 1000 copies of their first record, B & S dedicated the rest of their career to writing songs about the buyers out of gratitude.' I don't get the sense that B & S fans are part of some scene. The first quote seems inconsistent in light of what he writes later about B & S being a scene unto themselves. For example, take the "typical" B & S fan and Paula Cullen Booze Explosion, the phenomenon, not the person, then what have you got? In any case, it has no bearing on the music. The second quote suggests that the lyrical concerns from Tigermilk to IYFS shifted dramatically, but that's really inaccurate. In fact, on FYHCYWLAP, SM seems to have moved away from 'pen-portraits', which are good for certain types of characterization, that, incidentally, aim at effects other than bathos, to writing songs that are more personal and immediate. And it is evidence of Stuart's skill as a songwriter that he is able to achieve this transition without 'melodramatic flounce, apathetic self-disgust, or withdrawal into an apalled ironic paralysis', which is supposed to characterize bands like Nirvana & Radiohead. I mean, first person writing is supposed to be more difficult because you're trying to give inside and outside perspectives at the same time. (Here I can sense the expository stucture of my rebuttal - with subtitled sections - breaking down. Must get it all down at once.) A point of comparison between SM and the other SM might be just in the way they handled this transition. Personally, I don't like Rollercoaster Ride because the details seem too glittery and surfacy as opposed to Judy and the Dream of Horses. SM could have written that way on his "personal" songs on this album, which I consider to be The Model and There's Too Much Love. He could have carried diffidence to an extreme the way people say the other SM did with ____. (I won't put in the words cos it would just be on hearsay.) What I meant to write when I started this paragraph was stuff about fanbases and scenes. It was typical of TE, as a music journalist, to write 'everybodys shutting their doors on Belle And Sebastian now, Ive got to think about why they mattered in the first place'. But he's still a better critic than most. (It was nice of Nick to point out the article.) The things he writes about the new album confirm some doubts I've had about some songs. His criticism of I Fought In A War is based on the music, but I get a general sense that something is missing. It's not affecting in the way, say, Love Vigilantes is, or a story called Pale Anna by Heinrich Boll. And soul vocals don't really suit Stuart. It seems like a test of his range, as TE suggests. Tackling "issues" and trying different vocal styles might be a stage of experimentation that results in some mistakes, but, personally, I think the other songs on this album and previous songs make it worth it. His criticism of The Chalet Lines is STRANGE (rape as touching? that could hardly have been the goal). Most of all, I don't think Stuart is too ambitious with the lyrics for The Model. It's not just a mouthful of words, as with some of the Chills' lyrics. (How does he do it? Maybe it's got something to do with text-to-tune alignment - I should pay more attention in intonation class. Maybe it's in knowing how to sketch a narrative. Each episode stands well on its own but reflects on the others. I would really like to know what it's about, but I wouldn't want to ask and to have it told to me. It would have to be discovered.) Part 3 of the article is really great and puts into words what I couldn't - the studio, it's a construction site. Sorry for trying so hard. A stray comment turned into a personal challenge. But I know, the effort is embarrassing. Youn +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. 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