Belle And Sebastian write about love. It is not only a well-known fact, but a title of this excellent British ensemble’s eighth album. Lately, the band’s future has been a reason for many concerns and worries. Following the 2006 release of The Life Pursuit (2006), the Belle & Sebastian members decided to give their main project a break and focused on their side activities. It appeared to take a longer while than expected, which gave rise to speculations that the musicians were not interested in their principal band as much as before. Then, four years later, we received good news from the Belle & Sebastian side, a fresh studio work. It will once again prove that these talented and original performers are in their prime when working as part of Belle & Sebastian. Only as a member of this band, each one of them can show their best, and no other projects propose anything as interesting. The Scotts put aside all experimentations and executed the whole set in their traditional manner. That was a good decision to make because Belle & Sebastian fans simply wanted another lot of music from their favorite band
There is no doubt that the driving force behind Belle & Sebastian has always been and still is Stuart Murdoch. This man was the one to gather the band in the very beginning taking up responsibilities of singer and song-writer. All of their most impressive songs were penned by Stuart. But the amazing part is that the other participants of the ensemble are far from being grey figures simply fulfilling someone else’s instructions. They all play their unique parts without which the whole performance of Belle & Sebastian would be doomed to crash. As if willing to confirm it, Murdoch shared singing duties with the other members on Belle And Sebastian Write About Love. This is why the first person whose voice you can hear on the opening I Didn’t See It Coming is Sarah Martin. In fact, Murdoch seems to be very devoted to his project Gold Help The Girl where he works with many guest vocalists, and now he has borrowed this idea Belle & Sebastian. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John with Norah Jones, and Write About Love with Carey Mulligan are a total success. In terms of music, the ensemble did not want to strike listeners with unnecessary experiments or innovations, but once again prepared a set of delicate music with romantic touches of the old pop-music. It is enough to try Come On Sister, placed in the opening part of the album, to see that these musicians are still ready to deliver a great variety of melodies to any taste.
Belle And Sebastian Write About Love is a demonstration of permanence of ideals, loyalty to own musical style. British people, in general, are famed for those conservativeness that sometimes has no bounds and becomes absurd and grotesque. In case with Belle & Sebastian, faithfulness to traditions deserves all the praise. Their reluctance to change anything in music, the striving to follow the same issues in lyrics are revelations of decency, pride for their selves and their accomplishments, a declaration of confidence. Stuart Murdoch continued to study complex interrelations between people and their inner conflicts, here and there interpreting them through the prism of Christianity (The Ghost Of Rockschool) or giving little autobiographical insights (Read The Blessed Pages). Unlike albums of many performers where there only few songs worth listening because they were made to be hits, Belle And Sebastian Write About Love is a very nicely balanced record without outstanding leaders and flops. Belle & Sebastian long ago established themselves in their own dimension and do not crave to please everyone, but hope to find recognition among true judges of music.
LateNightTales, Vol. 2
The BBC Sessions (Deluxe Edition)
The Life Pursuit
Push Barman To Open Old Wounds
Amarantine 2005
Enya returns after a 5-year hiatus with Amarantine. Recorded with producer/arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan, it is typically melodious, replete with Celtic and world moods but accessible despite some tracks being sung in a made up language
