Sinister: It's time to get behind the government

[Nick.Dastoor at xxx.uk]

Yeah well John, like you say, you can't complain if people don't like the album
or bits of the album.  I don't know about anyone else, but it gave me no
pleasure at all to be finding fault with it.  When I heard it for the first
time, I was so excited I nearly wet my pants.  I get so much stick from people
for liking this band that I was desperate for it to be a fucking masterpiece
that would leaving them looking stupid.   It's nothing to do with trying to
protect the legacy of Sinister and Tigermilk.  Hell, Tigermilk is probably only
my third favourite of the albums.  So I listened on, knowing that it wouldn't
sink in properly for a while, thrilling at parts of it and scratching my head at
others.  And I listened again and again and I came to the decision that there
are certain things about it that are never going to do anything but disappoint
me.  I know what you mean about the release seeming a bit of an anti-climax on
Sinister.  Blame it on advance copies and Napster, maybe.  I dunno.  Although
actually the first two days of posts were mainly uncritical and excited, I
reckon.  When I posted mine, I few people emailed me to say 'oh, so it's not
just me then', the implication being that the general vibe on the list was as
enthusiastic as you would have wished.

> I'd love to be able to gush about it and to make you all feel good. But I
> can't. I know my limitations.

Exactly.  It's just harder to articulate excitement and what's great about music
than it is to describe faults.  I don't know much about fanzine writing, but if
there's anyone out there who can enthuse about the album in the way like John
wants, please start writing.

I don't even know if your comments were aimed at me, but if they were then it's
weird cause there's so much on the album that I love, and I thought I made that
clear.  'I Fought In A War', 'The Model', 'Don't Leave The Light On Baby' and
'There's Too Much Love' are all *dizzingly* great; among the finest things
they've ever recorded.  Funnily enough, the last three are the ones the band
themselves picked out at the press conference.  Of course, everyone has their
favourite tracks, and it's not good enough just to criticise the rest of the
tracks for not being them.  It's just there are some things (a *really* duff
track, OTT orchestration and lapses of taste) that just grate too much for me to
be able to take the album to my heart like I want to.

OK, if the balanve needs redressing the balance a bit, here are few visceral
thrills that Belle & Sebastian have given me recently:

When the organ kicks after the false ending of 'Don't Leave The Light On Baby'
and I start to understand why Mogwai think they can move me without words and
then the devastating harmonies come in and I'm reminded why they can't.

When Stevie pops in once a verse on 'The Model' and Stuart sounds so keen to
sing the next line he almost interrupts him.

When Stuart sings "And I reminded myself of the words you said, when we were
getting on".  Just becuase it's an impossibly sad line. Clean your ears out
Casarotto.

When Stevie's guitar goes 'downg downg downg' in the middle of 'The Wrong Girl'

When Stuart sings 'It's safer not to look around' on 'There's Too Much Love' and
the strings do some kind of progression (wrong word I expect, I know nothing)
that lends the line such pathos I just want to drop to the floor and cry for my
mother.  And then when when he sings "With my face head down just staring at the
brown for-mi-i-ca" it's just as bad.  Oh, fuck it, the whole song.


Will that do?

  N. x



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