Sinister: ATN Review

[Nicole Elger]

>On Fri, 12 Dec 1997 Paige said:
>
>There is a lovely review of IYFS on Addicted to Noise this week.
>Check it out at 
>http://www.addict.com/html/hifi/Reviews/44.1kHz


Hi HoneyList,

Paige beat me to posting about this review, but since I had the text ready
to go I'm sending it anyway, for those of you who don't have web access
(gasp!) or are a bit lazy. ;-)

I especially like the part about the songs entering her bloodstream. Read
on ...


________________________________________________ 
If You're Feeling Sinister
Belle And Sebastian
EMI/Enclave 
Rating: Very Good    
--------------------------------------------------
Songs of Innocence and Experience
By Jane Hadley

I slide a new CD into the stereo and sprawl out on the floor -- even the
couch seems impossibly high when my mood is this low. As I stare at the
ceiling, I spy an abstract dark spot in the corner -- could be a dead
spider, a bit of soot, a scrap of undigested beef, or a miniature projection
of my own personal demon. While none of these possibilities seem too
appealing, the soot would probably be easiest to exorcise. (I decide against
the personal demon idea because I envision a more interesting-looking
specter for myself.) 

For a minute it's so quiet ... 

"Get me away from here I'm dying/ Play me a song to set me free/ Nobody
writes them like they used to/ So it may as well be me."

And then the world-wielding voice of Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch
comes through the speakers, singing stories that are ebullient, weary,
funny, forlorn, and sardonic, sometimes all at once. In the title song,
Hilary is obsessed with S&M and Bible studies, "not everyone's cup of tea,"
and walks to her death because "she couldn't think of anything to say."
Anthony kills himself "because he thought he'd never feel this way again."
Murdoch's heroically fragile characters all are obsessed with something:
sex, spirit, ambition, horses: "Judy got a book at school/ She went under
the cover with her torch/ She fell asleep till it was morning/ She dreamt
about the girl who stole a horse." In the brilliantly realized folk-pop
world of this Glasgow band, feelings of awkwardness and loneliness become
noble and, well, almost cheery. 

In fact, before I know it I'm up and dancing, shufflestepping in and out of
shadows and light. Bleary-eyed and snuffling, I am tapping my feet --
against my will -- tapping away, and at some point -- I don't know how or
why, and it kind of freaks me out -- sparks start flying, red and blue ones,
tiny little sparks, flying off my feet, zigzagging around my toes and heels,
warming my soles and surging up through my legs. The last store of back
energy I have I use to kick up some fancy steps. 

Soon I summon the will to leave the cozy claustrophobia of my apartment for
the cold grayness outside. Once on the sidewalk, I step on all the cracks
and whisper-sing "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying." People give me worried
looks. But I'm okay, I'm fine -- in fact, suddenly I'm perversely happy, or
at least high. And that's when I realize that these songs have entered my
bloodstream and transformed the spartan furnishings of my lonely heart.
They've dragged in a bunch of coffee- and wine-stained couches and have made
themselves at home. They're keeping me company. 

The best sad songs sound joyful -- they're tricksters who grab your hand and
lead you onto the dance floor, and before you know it your tears blend with
sweat, and you start to feel alive again ... in pain, yes, but delirious,
feverish, dancing along to the sound of your heart breaking -- not ascending
but descending into the heart of whatever miscellaneous suffering you've
accumulated. And therein, you might find, lies transcendence. 


SOUND CLIPS (45 second samples)

Belle And Sebastian, "If Youre Feeling Sinister"
Belle And Sebastian, "Get Me Away From Here, Im Dying"
Belle And Sebastian, "Judy And The Dream Of Horses"

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