Sinister: mm album review

[andrew dean]

      *---*      HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINISTER BABIES    *---*

NOT entirely unlike your granny giving you a big, dirty French
kiss when you were only expecting the customary peck on
the cheek. Or finding out your mineral water's actually neat tequila
spiked with white spirit and acid. Or reaching down to stroke a cute
li'l doggy only to find out it's rabid, hungry and desperate to hump
your leg. Too much, just too damn much.

   It's a "Noooooo! Bob Dylan's gone electric!" album this one,
an electric bolt from Belle & Sebastian's previously placid blue
lagoon. They've strapped on their guitars, their heavy-duty
sweatbands and, quite possibly, their Arab straps, and produced
an album that goes some way towards kicking arse. Well,
thigh, at least. There's even a lumbering, dance-type thingy,
"A Space Boy Dream", all "Starsky & Hutch" funk and Herb
Alpert trumpet noodling. Not what we expected.

   And not exactly what we wanted either, because B&S don't do
upbeat quite as well as they think they do. They ram some string-
swept Motown euphoria into their pop washing machine on "Dirty
Dream Number Two", but it just comes out as a soggy, crumpled
version of McAlmont & Butler's "Yes", the faded, washed-out
remnants of a song left sludgy and useless in its back pocket.
They try their hand at melodious synth pop on the swooping,
gobbling "Sleep The Clock Around", but the tune is just left
to bob about in their self-conscious musical crocodile tears.

   By becoming a "real band" this time (instead of a living,
breathing backing springing gently from Stuart Murdoch's head),
Belle & Sebastian are in danger of losing their treasured identity,
that priceless, erotic charm. It's not a disaster - not at all - it's
just a shame. When Murdoch is left alone to get on with the
poetic butterfly kisses of "It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career",
the breezy sigh of "The Rollercoaster Ride" or the wry lyricism
of the London-weary title track, the effect is almost unbearably
beautiful. At other times (especially on the indulgent, watery
songs contributed by his fellow Belles and Sebastians), this
is a case of slightly too many bittersweet nothings.

ROBIN BRESNARK 3/5

lots more b&s related bits in the papers this week too, v-twin
interviews, little looper snippets, stuff like that...

koogs
==
andrew dean (koogydelbbog at yahoo.com)


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