You really don’t have to be a hardened cynic to classify the songs by Belle and Sebastian in the genre box “affected music”. With their wonderfully quirky, yet feather-light folk-pop numbers about heartbreak, the feeling of not being understood or the beauty of melancholy, the seven-strong band collective around singer Stuart Murdoch has won a loyal and not so small fan base. The Scots’ albums regularly land in the top ten of the British charts. Her excellent new record, A Bit of Previous, due out Friday, would also deserve a high chart entry like this.
Old-fashioned in the best sense
Recorded in the hometown of Glasgow, “A Bit of Previous” has turned out to be an old-fashioned album in the best sense of the word: the sound is clear and compact, the melodies are delicately arranged and immediately catch your ear. In a pop world dominated by rap features and autotune, in which interchangeability has unfortunately become a quality feature, this is really good.
Pieces like the chamber pop-like, slightly nostalgic “Young and Stupid”, the ballad “Do It for Your Country”, the gentle country waltz “Deathbed of My Dreams” or the wonderful closing song “Working Boy in New York City” are among the finest pieces the Scots have ever recorded. It may not be cool what Stuart Murdoch and colleagues are delivering again. Whole thing. “A Bit of Previous” deliberately misses the zeitgeist, but it hits the heart.
Source: Nachrichten
