Now let me clarify my bluntness: this album, along with If You're Feeling Sinister, had sat in my library for ages, largely un-listened. Pot was the impetus necessary to lose any pre-conceptions about bands and albums and what I have or haven't listened to yet, so that I could, among other things, put on some headphones and get lost in a maze of shuffled music. And it doesn't surprise me at all in retrospect, that as with any relaxed, bias-free and intimate listen, I discovered truths previously invisible. And thus, my entry into the world of these lovely Scots.
The sound is gentle. It's the soundtrack to the lives of lonely high school boys and girls who, instead of becoming angsty, rebellious, or destructive, continue to believe that life can be beautiful, lovely, and maybe even lively. Where both groups embrace the all-too-important fact that life's (often) a bitch, one throws a finger in everyone's face and the other hangs on to who-the-fuck-knows-what. Hope, probably.
The music's romanticism is sharp, and so, as Chopin's was grounded in "harmony, counterpoint, and fugue," so is Belle & Sebastian's grounded in reality and in the honest belief that life can be beautiful. As such, the album becomes wistful, blurring the line between being pensive and being content. Its joie de vivre means when it's happy, it's exuberant. Its romanticism means when it's sad, it's either nostalgic or just selflessly hopeful, roaming along in a haze of comfortable familiarity (which is always changing).
Rarely does music, lyrics, and statement (otherwise known as swagger in bands like Bad Company) come together so well on an album as they do on this one. And I ask you, how can anyone so me-against-the-world love the world so much? Key theme: books.
By the way, the musicianship is astounding; tight, lyrical, and professional. Thus, a song like Asleep on a Sunbeam still wins, and when those horns drop in you'd think the album had peaked.
You really think the rest of If You're Feeling Sinister is filler? Even Judy and the Dream of Horses? Fox in the Snow? Mayfly? Like Dylan in the Movies?
ReplyDeleteeven 'The Stars of Track and Field?' even 'Like Dylan in the Movies?'
ReplyDeletehere's one vote for 'The Life Pursuit' being the greatest Belle there is!
i misspoke - i love judy and the dream of horses. the rest i'm not familiar with at all. i'm sure it's a great album, i just never gave it a thorough listen. if you're feeling sinister seems like the wimpier, downtrodden version of dear catastrophe waitress. if that's the case, i don't see how any b&s album could surpass these two as far as meaning goes.
ReplyDeletewhy do you like life pursuit the most?
The Life Pursuit is pure pop brilliance!
ReplyDeleteevery song on that album has me nodding, tapping, humming, singing, whistling. it's like the soundtrack to driving around with a pretty girl on a hot summer day.
although, that might just be because of my experience with it... Meryl got me into the band originally and, more specifically, my friend Tori used to (actually, she still might) always have The Life Pursuit in her car. whenever she drove, we could never find a good reason not to listen to it.
it always sounds just right.
i forgot that Adam actually mentioned that Belle fact about Tori in his Belle post awhile ago... hah!
ReplyDeleteok, "like dylan in the movies" is quite good. that brings up the "awesome track count" to four. :-)
ReplyDelete