Sinister: I Always Cry at Endings

[Brian Pennington]

Dear Sinister,
	Ah, well I've been meaning to post for over a week now, but 
it's been a chaotic time in the life of me. I wanted to make some 
observations on how B&S have affected my life, but I also want to say 
something about the new album. So I'll do them both, in reverse 
order. So if you're the kind who like reading how people think of the 
album, read the first part and then delete. If you like reading about 
people's lives only, skip on down a bit.
	Oh but first I was listening to a mixtape from a friend, and 
I realized, upon hearing a certain Velvet Underground song, that it 
sounded a LOT like Legal Man. Not the chords necessarily, but the 
bongos, the whimsy and the faux-soulness of the song. I can't 
remember the name of the song, though, as it's not on any of the 
first three albums, and that's all I've got. It's the one where Lou 
says "Electricity is from other planets," and the one where they're 
talking in the sound booth the whole time. Anyway, on to the album...

	The way I got to hearing FISHYCLAP is, I think, the absolute 
most perfect way to hear a new album by your favorite band (or one of 
your favorite bands). Firstly, I started to hear it wasn't good at 
all, and I heard a couple of good songs on Napster but I refused to 
listen to any more of the album until it came out properly. Then I 
heard it was a grower, more thoughts on the album. Then the day it 
came out I drove to the only independent record store here in 
Charleston, West Virginia (anyone else live here? Didn't think so...) 
and of course, Belle & Sebastian might as well have been something in 
another language, so I moved on to the Mall, and actually found 
several copies there in a chain store, priced, of course, at $18. But 
I bought it anyway. Then I took it home and listened to it a few 
times each day and have been doing so for a while, each time in its 
entirety.
	I'll say this, there's a tendency to be disappointed with 
bands you love, and that's why hearing it wasn't good helped me 
realize it was great. It easily surpassed my worried expectations. 
And it is a fantastic album. I'm not sure if it's better or worse 
than previous B&S albums, but it's fantastic. And if a lot of people 
don't think so and their fanbase drops then fine, that never stopped 
me from liking them before.
	As to the album as a whole, I think it's very organic, and I 
have no idea what people who don't think so are talking about. The 
production and instrumentation tie the disparate styles of songs 
together quite nicely, and that's the definition of the best thing to 
do on an album. If you write songs that all sound the same, then 
that's even worse, because it starts to get boring no matter how good 
the songs are on their own. If you just simply write different song 
styles without tying them together, you end up with something like 
Tigermilk, some excellent songs, some boring ones, and absolutely 
nothing to tie them all together. For the record, Tigermilk's my 
least favorite B&S album and from the sound of things it'll stay that 
way.
	And even if this isn't my favorite B&S album (which I haven't 
properly decided but it's doubtful this could best Sinister), it's 
certainly got some of the best Belle & Sebastian songs to date on it. 
The Model, for example, is astonishingly good, from the very first 
bit where I could swear it was going to be a Left Banke song, to 
Struan and Stevie trading lines like nobody's business. Mmm, and the 
harpsichord, yet another innovation which I think ties this album 
together, as it's featured on three or four songs prominently. Don't 
Leave the Lights on Baby is another fantastic Struan song, and I 
Fought in a War is lovely as well. All three of these could fit on my 
'best of' B&S list.
	And then there's "Waiting for the Moon to Rise," which blew 
my mind the first time I heard it. I think Sarah is the only B&S 
member whose voice holds a candle to Struan's. More Sarah! Less 
Isobel! Sarah should sing all the backing vocals from here on in if 
you ask me. I never thought a song not written by Stuart M would be 
one of my favorites off of an album, but it is. The Wrong Girl is 
quite good as well, I think. Stevie's best song by far, although the 
strings do sound a bit iffy on it. It already grew on me since I 
heard the session of it, so it doesn't need repeat listenings. It 
actually sounds a little less country on the album.
	Nice Day for a Sulk is a guilty pleasure. A self-parody, but 
how'd they manage to make it sound so good to listen to? I'll never 
understand that. And Woman's Realm is very nice as well, even though 
it does sound a bit like a lesser Arab Strap, it's distinct and I 
think it stands on its own. There's Too Much Love, again, falls into 
the category for me of very good B&S songs on this album.
	So that leaves...Chalet Lines, Family Tree and Beyond the 
Sunrise. Two of which are the most 'controversial' songs on this 
album. Chalet Lines, I think, is a bit painful to listen to 
sometimes, but sounds good and varies the formula of the album 
nicely. So I'm glad it's there but in its own right I wouldn't put 
much value in it. I feel the same about Beyond the Sunrise, actually. 
As a single it would be awful, but it makes a great atmospheric album 
track, insuring that the album isn't too formulaic. And once you get 
past the first couple of verses, you get those haunting Struan and 
Isobel vocal harmonies with that eerie bell in the background. That's 
worth the track alone.
	The only song I'm not happy with at all is Family Tree. Who 
said this was penned by Stuart M? If it is he must be trying to write 
songs for Isobel's Gentle Waves album, as that's all it sounds like. 
"The Gate" is a lovely song, and it has enough B&S in it to justify 
it being a B&S song. But this...doesn't even sound like B&S. It's 
frighteningly twee, and not in the self-parody style of Nice Day for 
a Sulk. I'd have switched this song for Winter Wooskie if I could 
have chosen the tracklisting.
	But that's one thing I think some people haven't considered 
here. As much as I adore Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner, 
sticking that twangy monster in the middle of this album would have 
made it incredibly inorganic. It doesn't match up well with most of 
the songs, whereas most of these other ones do in their own way, even 
Family Tree. Another thing to consider, all of Stuart's songs on this 
album save I Fought in a War seem to have been written on a piano. 
What I mean by that is that B&S usually seem to write songs by having 
someone, often Struan, write a part on an instrument and vocals, and 
then bring it in and the group comes up with the rest. Or at least 
that's how Isobel described it in her Chickfactor interview. And 
Stuart's guitar songs usually seem to end up being more traditional 
band-type songs with traditional band-type instrumentation. The piano 
songs seem to be the ones the band gets a bit more creative on. Oh, 
and the efforts by non-Struan members actually seem to me to fit much 
better (and sound much better) on this album too. They don't stick 
out like sore thumbs anymore.
	And another thing I noticed. The use of guitar is played down 
a lot on this album. There are a lot of points where you can hardly 
hear any guitar. When it is used, the effect is wonderful, like the 
Byrds-y guitar bits in Waiting for the Moon to Rise, and the first 
shimmering electric guitar in I Fought in a War, which now that I 
think on it does sound a little like Love. Not as much as 
Expectations though ;)  So they played down guitars in favor of 
pianos and harpsichords and organs, and when the guitars are there, 
their presence is all that much more appreciated in my mind. That's 
one of the other things that makes me feel the album is more coherent 
and organic. Certainly moreso than TWATTYBUS and Tigermilk. I think 
I'll never like it as much as Sinister but it's not going to be my 
least favorite B&S album, and it's excellent. That's what I think 
anyway.

	So on to the bit about my life that is only somewhat related 
to B&S. I made a tape of my favorite B&S songs back when Modern Rock 
Song came out. And one day about a week ago I took a bike ride, and 
that was the tape I brought with me. My life has been very chaotic 
lately, and I'm about to graduate. The ending in the subject header 
is my life as a student, and living in the town I went to school for 
the larger part of four years. Not that I really loved that town or 
being a student, it's just that endings always bother me. The 
finality of them.
	But anyway, I took my 90-minute tape with me, and I rode my 
bike down the path next to the Hocking River. The path goes by the 
Hocking for a ways, meanders along with it, then eventually crosses 
through a park and into a forest. I remember dodging butterflies and 
smelling the forest plants and the damp mud of the creeks. It's a 
really pretty ride, one of the things I'll miss about Athens. I 
didn't think about how far I'd go, I just popped the tape in, and 
rode until side one was over. Then I turned around and put side two 
in. I certainly went a lot further than I'd ever gone before.
	But I realized some things in those 90 minutes. One thing was 
that Belle & Sebastian have been a massive part of my life as a 
university student. I first heard them as a freshman, and now I'm 
graduating. I didn't even like them at first, but I remember a day 
when I went to do my radio show, and feeling like I wanted to 
transfer, hating the place I was at, and so I just went in and 
instead of doing my show, I listened to Sinister, which had just been 
put in the studio and just been released. And listening to it the 
first time in its entirety was like a revelation. "Get Me Away from 
Here, I'm Dying," seemed to echo my heart at the time perfectly. I 
bought Sinister the next day, and I never looked back. Listening to 
them brought so many memories back to me. Like how much my best 
friend likes Dirty Dream Number Two. That song will always remind me 
of her. And I was reminded of seeing them the first time with her, 
and how magical it was. I don't think I've ever seen any of my other 
favorite bands before, and some of them I never will (unless John 
Lennon turns up alive, for example), but it's a fantastic experience, 
and they were in top form when we saw them. Nothing will ever beat 
that sensation in my mind. Part of it from seeing one of my favorite 
bands, whose songs I've all but memorized, and part of it seeing that 
with someone special to me, who felt the same way.
	I remember once, I had listened to the same tape and almost 
posted to the list about the experience I had with it. I was to pick 
up a friend from the airport in Columbus, and my car's battery had 
died. I called a towing service to come jump it, but they nearly 
missed me, and I had to run out waving my arms, and I slipped and 
fell on one of the many patches of ice then in my desperation. But I 
got ahold of them and I took off, speeding towards Columbus so my 
friend wouldn't have to wait in the airport any longer than 
neccessary. And as B&S played I travelled too fast over ice and snow, 
worried I'd spin out or my car would collapse. Several banging noises 
happened, but nothing severe enough to cause me problems. As it turns 
out the car had more than battery problems, and though it seemed fine 
when I picked my friend up, it later broke down in Columbus, and we 
were stuck in the cold for a long time, until a preacher drove me to 
get a new battery. Anyway, although I was listening to B&S at the 
time, I never did post about it, because for a while I was too busy 
entertaining my friend, and then I decided it didn't have much to do 
with the band or the music.
	But this bikeride did. I feel like B&S are a part of me. And 
as I unsteadily open a new chapter in my life, it's reassuring to 
know that a new Belle & Sebastian album is here with me, to help get 
me through the tough times and to etch the good times in my memory. 
This album does seem a bit more like a tough times kind of album, 
though, truthfully. So I hope that doesn't bode ill for me. I think 
Nick Hornby said, probably in High Fidelity, something to the effect 
that songs never let you down. Your life can let you down, people and 
material things can let you down, but songs never do. That seems as 
good a place as any to stop.

-- 
Brian Pennington, aka Mick McMick | cellophanesky at mac.com | ICQ# 39021436
Sandcastle Records: <http://www.indiepages.com/sandcastle/>
"Better a tear of truth than smiling lies." - Duncan Browne
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