CD Odyssey Disc 1543: Belle and Sebastian

My apologies for the scarcity of reviews of late, gentle readers. I have had some commitments that have eaten up almost every moment of leisure time. I can assure you that better times (and more frequent reviews) are coming soon.

This next review is not Viking metal. That isn’t to say I didn’t listen to any Viking metal this week (because I did), I just didn’t randomly roll one to review.

Disc 1543 is…. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance

Artist: Belle and Sebastian

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? A woman with crutches and what looks like some kind of…circuitry?...on her legs, looks like she’s getting ready to dance with a gentlemen with the same…circuitry?...on the side of his head. Hard to say if the woman in the background is there to guard them or force them to dance at gunpoint.

This cover confused me so much that I went and watched a Belle and Sebastian music video that uses the same actors and set. It did not help.

How I Came To Know It: I had already been a Belle and Sebastian fan for many years when this came out, so it was just me buying it and hoping for the best.

How It Stacks Up: I did a full ranking of my Belle and Sebastian albums way back in March 2014 (at Disc 603), but I only had five total back then. I now have seven, and I’ve also parted with one more. So here’s the updated full ranking:

1. If You’re Feeling Sinister: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 591)
2. The Boy With the Arab Strap: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 540)
3. Push Barman to Open Old Wounds: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1242)
4. The Life Pursuit: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 603)
5. Write About Love: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 301)
6. Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 61)
7. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance: 2 stars (reviewed right here)
8. How To Solve Our Human Problems: 2 stars (reviewed at Disc 1497)

Ratings: 2 stars

Listening to “Girls in Peacetime…” feels like being in some indie romance where the characters spend a lot of their time staring out the window of a tram, idly thinking about their troubles. The energy is there, and the bustle of the city as well, but it is an absent-minded energy, rather than an immediate one.

There is also what feels like a very conscious effort to squeeze dance club beats into the songs. While I admit this gives the album a lot of energy, I mostly found it annoying. “Enter Sylvia Plath” is particularly egregious and sounds like something you’d hear at a runway show on Fashion TV back in the nineties, accompanied by lots of unwearable clothes, art makeup and the thousand-yard stares of long-limbed women. Hmm…now that I think about it, that’s not all bad. “Play for Today” subs in a more eighties feel, but still puts your mind at the side of the same runway.

A bigger problem with both songs is their length (6:48 and 7:33 respectively). The beats are already a bit repetitive and combined with how long you’ve got to listen to them, things become a bit of a slog. That’s generally true of the record, which clocks in at over 60 minutes total, despite only twelve tracks. For a pleasant and upbeat bit of pop it really takes its time getting nowhere terribly interesting.

For all that, there are some serious bright spots on the record, most of all the single, “Nobody’s Empire”. This tune is one of Belle and Sebastian’s all-time best. No weird eighties or nineties dance thump, just their signature ability to deliver an inspiring lilt of a pop hook. At the end of each verse there is the most delightful drop-down that helps frame everything else. The repetition of that drop-down slowly pulls your ear from the melody of the piano down into the gorgeous bassline pinning the song together. This song is inspiring, uplifting and more fun to listen to on every repetition.  

The rest of the record is solid as well, despite some of its shortcomings. It isn’t as good as some of B&S’s classics, but it is an easy breezy listen if that’s what you’re in the mood for. I guess I wanted a bit more than that, but I’ll be keeping it because it’s good for a “during a dinner party” mix, if we ever threw dinner parties. Which we don’t. O, bother.

Best tracks: Nobody’s Empire, Ever Had a Little Faith