Sinister: I had to say this

[duke of harringay]

Don¹t you just hate music journalists? Getting to hear records weeks, if not
months before the poor blighted Œpunter¹Š What a life. The downside of
course is that you tend to miss out that whole excitement about the release
date thing; that marvellous sense of expectation as you queue in line for
the record store to open, that heart in the mouth moment as you fork over
your cash and rush home to whack it on the record player. Sorry, showing my
age thereŠ should have read Œbefore whacking it in your PowerBook and
ripping it onto your iPod¹.

Of course I never considered myself a music journalist, which is just as
well because nor has anyone else, but stillŠ it¹s nice to pretend.
Especially since it¹s meant reigniting my love affair with that band of
ragamuffins some call Belle And Sebastian.

See, the way things have been recently I wouldn¹t have bothered to even cast
more than a casual eye over the fact that they have a new album lined up. I
mean, I¹d been unimpressed by anything they¹d done since (bits of) ŒArab
Strap¹. I thought, Œach, I don¹t need Belle And Sebastian in my life¹, and
you know the only reason that big poster for those mythic Manchester Town
Hall concerts still hangs on my classroom wall is because it¹s too high up
for me to easily reach.

So when a copy of ŒWaitress¹ fell in my lap, I had the review all ready to
go. It talked of Moments and Memories and dismissed their current effort
with a toss of the hand, a flick of the wrist and a Œwe¹re all different
people now¹. I thought I¹d let them off lightly, thought I had played the
drifted-apart former lovers part pretty well.

Then I listened to the album. And then I listened again.

It¹s five days later and I¹m still listening. Hardly anything else has
managed to get on the stereo in the meantime. To say I¹m surprised isn¹t
even in it.

So I¹m not going to repeat the things I ended up writing in the second draft
of that review here, except to say that, ah, well, look: I WAS right and
we¹re none of us the same as we were, and that¹s just fine. Belle And
Sebastian no longer sound to me like the same slightly scrawny gang of
scruffy scallywags I fell in love with all those years ago (look in the
archives if you¹re a youngster, or in the deepest recesses of your memories
if you¹re a Sinister ŒOriginal¹ ­ for which read Œold git¹). They sound more
self-assured, and they sound like they¹re having a whale of a time. Which is
something we should not underestimate the value of in Pop.

ŒWaitress¹ sounds like a magical Pop confection, crammed full of wonderful
songs that are stuffed with wonderful moments that skip and soar, that crawl
along your spine laying butterfly kisses as they go. Lines leap out and
ambush you with a knowing grin; there¹s lyrical and musical nods of
reference and reverence that glow with wit and arch wisdom but that never
for a moment sound laboured and over-wrought with Œcleverness¹. Best of all
today are the sounds of ping pong balls, the lovely Thin Lizzy references,
the line about Œwalk away renee¹ and the fact that ŒStay Loose¹ sounds like
an outtake from ŒBack in Denim¹ (some mighty, mighty recommendation in case
you were wondering). Oh, and the fact that ŒWrapped Up In Books¹ sounds for
all the world like Cliff Richard¹s ŒIn The Country¹ (as covered by The
Farmers Boys).

So, you know, sorry to annoy all of you real fans who do the queuing outside
the record store, but I just had to share this with you. I know you¹re all
going to love this record when you hear it. It¹s the kind of record
obsessions build themselves around.

I can almost feel a Belle Lettres 2 coming onŠ

Lots of love 
The Duke.   

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
     To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
     send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
     majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
 +-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
 +-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
 +-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
 +-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
 +-+               Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut!                +-+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+