Sinister: www.muse.ie

[ciaran at xxx.net]

Hello,

Here is a copy a B&S review ftom WWW.MUSE.IE

read on.


Ciaran.............................

Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap (Jeepster) 

      You've never seen them all together in the one photograph, they've
rarely played live up to now, and they don't engage in very many
      interviews. Yet somehow Belle & Sebastian's folk-pop cult has spread
to the mind of every cognizant indie-kid and the heart of every
      romantic fool. Their enigma isn't built on myth though but rather a
back catalogue of two fine albums (the first of which is impossibly
      rare) and a selection box of non-album track EPs, such as the
delicious Arthur Lee-esque West Coast Soul and mariachi trumpets of "Dog
      On Wheels". All of this has pre-established a revered status for the
third album from B&S. Just as well that it's their best one so far. 

      "The Boy With The Arab Strap", a teasingly in-jokeish reference to
their fellow Glaswegians, manages to locate some of principal
      songwriter Stuart Murdoch's finest tunes alongside four contributions
from three of the other seven full-time B&S-ers. In the latter
      category, guitarist Stevie Jackson includes two hazy Sixties' pop
songs, including his lonesome tale of being the only band member to
      miss being wined and dined by legendary A&R king "Seymour Stein". And
"A Space Boy Dream" is the funky spoken-word and beats
      combo work of literary-bassist Stuart David a.k.a. Looper. 

      The non-Murdoch contributions admittedly offer new and fresh
dimensions to the B&S structure. But when the angelic boy wonder himself
      is on the sort of form that breeds the oscillating folk-bliss of the
title track and the dizzy Northern Soul reverie of "Dirty Dream Number
      Two", then one must still acknowledge the creative drive behind them.
Not to mention the cool all-hands-on-deck swagger of "Sleep The
      Clock Around" and "The Rollercoaster Ride", with their varying
concoctions of bag-pipes, Moogs, strings, trumpets and divinely born pop
      melodies. You should buy this. 













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