Write About Love

Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love

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CD Details

Artist: Belle & Sebastian
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2010-10-12
Music Label: Matador Records
Soundtracks:

I Didn't See It Coming
Come on Sister
Calculating Bimbo
I Want the World to Stop
Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John [ft. Norah Jones]
Write About Love [ft. Carey Mulligan]
I'm Not Living in the Real World
Ghost of Rockschool
Read the Blessed Pages
I Can See Your Future
Sunday's Pretty Icons

Music reviews of Write About Love

Music Review: Born on a Sunday, everyday is Monday
Rating: 4 Stars

You might not realize it, but Belle and Sebastian, despite mighty efforts to the contrary, have always been a Singles Band, and one of the best of the lot. They seemingly inherited this royal perch from The Smiths, similarly gifted in similar ways, and carry on the torch defiantly, with much aplomb. Check out their mid-career Singles Comp, "Push Barman to Open Old Wounds" and I defy you to find a bad song, or a sour note.

They also pretty also much invented the swooning modern Chamber Pop genre, fiercer than you think, and let's face it, do it better than anyone else who's tried. They have had great albums ("If You're Feeling Sinister", "Boy with the Arab Strap") and amazing moments on really good albums ("Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like a Peasant", "The Life Pursuit") but they pretty much stand firm on doing what they do best: writing beautiful, supernaturally catchy pop songs that call forth a gentler, bookish world of Scottish schoolyard ache that we'd all like to spend an afternoon strutting around in, or basking in the glow of, or simply daydreaming about. Their music relies heavily on the sunshiney verve of the late 60's early 70's Top of the Pops sound (with a smattering of Nick Drake, also influential), which these days continually pleases knit-cap wearing hipsters from Williamsburg to Silverlake.

You'd think by now that almost 15 years in, well into their 40's, with a rather different line-up than they started out with--all dreamy and accidental, on 1996's "Tigermilk" (lead singer Stuart Murdoch had just awakened from a years-long battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, with his songs already intact, probably why so many of them are about dreaming, sleeping, and waking) that hushed in a new musical era of lyrical sensitivity, that they'd be wearing a bit thin. But no, not Belle and Sebastian. In fact, they seem to be stronger than ever, and ever more aware of their iconic status in the modern annals of postgrad hipsterdom. Take their much-lauded Williamsburg Waterfront show, for instance. First of all they were at...um, The Williamsburg Waterfront. Second of all, they seem to have an almost prescient connection with their fans, playing all the right songs, handing out toys to all the "Baby Belles" (children of Belle and Sebastian fans, of which there were many now) and calling upon JUST the perfect number of cute people to come up and dance with them.

"Write About Love" is actually one of their better proper albums. You might not realize it at first, but then it sinks in. Upon first listen, I was oddly annoyed that they were being so...well, so Belle and Sebastian about the whole thing. But then I mean, what else would you expect? The title track, the opening track ("I Didn't See it Coming") and "I Want the World to Stop" (wow, talk about Top of the Pops) were tunes I had already heard in advance, over the web, and they were the immediate stand-outs. But, actually, those are three amazing Belle and Sebastian songs! Upon further listens, I realized that "The Ghost of Rockschool" is perhaps one of the most brilliantly composed, heartfelt songs of their career (gorgeously sung by Stuart) and "I'm Not Living in the Real World" is a tongue-in-cheek sleeping late Saturday Morning pop gem, and the only time I've really been able to stand Stevie Jackson taking over lead vocals.

I started noticing rather pretty moments on "Calculating Bimbo" and "Sunday's Pretty Icons". I also loved Sarah Martin's star turn on "I Can See Your Future" and I reaaally loved her duet with Murdoch on "I Didn't See it Coming." Martin is an excellent successor to long departed Isobel Campbell (the Shelley Long of indie rock) and she really does balance out the vocals in the band RATHER well. Perhaps Carey Mulligan (although good casting) was a bit unnecessary on the title track, and I just didn't know what to make of Norah Jones turning up to sing on "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John" but you know, it's OK. The instrumentals are as strong as ever, with Cooke, Geddes, Jackson and Co. all earning their keep, fleshing out the sound wonderfully (Martin and Cooke do the arrangements), and producer Tony Hoffer, who did their last one, keeping things on track, not overwhelming the band with fussy production, but keeping things cool, letting the band shine.

Murdoch's lyrics are in line with his being, well, in Belle and Sebastian: "Master I love from the ground above / As the stars below as my memory flows / Every picture frame is beating / Louder than time / Every clock in the hall is bending slowly" OR "The seconds move on / (if you watch the clock) / And the sky grows dull / (if you're looking up) / But the girl steps from thrill to thrill / On the tightrope walk".

In any case, Belle and Sebastian are hardly the band that got booted years ago from Sessions on 54th for being too much of a mess. They know what they're good at, they do it well, and they endeavor to enjoy themselves. As their liner notes coyly state: "...if you must, send us your band's latest music...or whatever it is that you're into. We will endeavour to write back, but admittedly the pile grows ever higher and wobblier".

More Write About Love free music reviews:
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Description of Write About Love

Back after a 5-year hiatus doing solo projects, soundtracks and more, Glasgow's beloved Belle and Sebastian have returned with one of their finest albums. Marrying the intimacy of early works like Sinister and Tigermilk with the production values of their more recent work, Write About Love is a varied, captivating and occasionally disturbing trawl through the mind of Stuart Murdoch and his colleagues.The album features duets with Norah Jones and actress Carey Mulligan (An Education).

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