week 2:
for love of mixtapes; god is a dj (and his name is fred); wyclef returns; A-HA RETURNS (!); the twenty greatest songs ever scientifically determined by a three man panel consisting of me, myself and i; oh, and, boobs.

week 3:
get drawn to the magnetic fields; three movies that are grossly overrated; some of the greatest movies...ever; xtc murders love...again; james brown breaks out in a "cold sweat"; morrissey and springsteen...separated at birth?; i bare my soul...again; and MORE!

week 4:
gladiator slays me, eminem and xtc reviews, a new look!, i poke fun at my own writing, the inmates take over the asylum, and MORE!

other blogs i like:
(because they're out there, you know)
nylpm
blue lines
josh's blog
westernhomes
log.nu
skykicking
pearls that are his eyes
catherine's pita
public blog
i drank WHAT?
cultural artifacts of the moment
frytopia

BELLE & SEBASTIAN - FOLD YOUR HANDS, CHILD, YOU WALK LIKE A PEASANT

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yes, yes, we've all heard the jokes. not since fiona apple's most recent "opus" have people laid into an album title like they have with belle & sebastian's fyhcywlap. "fold your band, child" is a personal fave and i have coined "scold your band, child, they play far too pleasant." i mean, when doing a b&s review, there are two avenues to go: you can joke about the feyness of the band and the silliness of the album title or you can discuss the album. OR you can call the album a joke and call the whole thing off! HA HA HA!

sorry. some confessions: i do not own a single b&s album, though i have heard the early eps. i perhaps wrongly misjudged b&s on a song or two from their proper albums and formed many unfounded opinions about them. when i heard songs like "lazy line painter jane," i found myself loving them despite myself. my curiosity, then, was suitably piqued, particularly hearing the psychedelic, beat-heavy affair that was the non-album single "legal man." given the tempo of this album, it was understandably left off (and given their obsession with the 60s when artists released non-lp singles all the time, it makes even more sense).

fyhc... (sorry, the anagram is even too long to type out) is haunted by the spectre of bad late-60s/early-70s pop. now that doesn't necessarily mean the album is bad, but with the atmosphere of some of the tunes, you get the feeling that you're listening to a seals & croft or a jim croce album, which one guesses is the desired effect. the album begins with "i fought in a war" -- as if the very thought of war didn't turn murdoch's twee little tummy, let alone actually fighting in one. ha ha ha!

sorry. "i fought in a war" is one of the better tracks on fyhc, a letter from a soldier to his sweetheart back home. it's also highly representative of the album: murdoch's reedy voice, though thankfully, we don't get *too* much of it here; hushed atmosphere; and quiet, acoustic arrangements that slowly introduce grandiloquent orchestral accompaniment. in fact, the intricacy and abundancy of the strings and horns make lambchop's ornate nixon sound like guided by voices in comparison.

this lays at the heart of the problem with fyhc: yes, the arrangements are lovely, but they seem to be simply masking the weak tunes. tom called it "bland prettiness," and i tend to agree. too many of the songs end up immemorable: "don't leave the light on baby" with its "sexy" rhodes; "nice day for a sulk" which puts the "mello" in "mellotron" but does feature a classic b&s title; "women's realm" with its ironic gospel feel -- you get the feeling that the keyboardist will break into the "charlie brown" theme at any second; the echoey, altogether boring "chalet lines". all of these tracks have nice, lulling backings but none of them stick in my head.

it seems that the other members of b&s fare better on this album. yes, there is more to b&s than stuart murdoch, thank you very much: frankly, i don't know anyone faint-hearted enough to be able to stand a full album of him. stevie jackson contributes the lovely "beyond the sunrise" with its choir middle and lavish production. (jackson's "the wrong girl," though admirably uptempo, should serve as a lesson to all would-be songwriters out there: just because you use fancy chord changes and sighing horns doesn't mean that your song is "bacharachian." ol' burt wouldn't wipe his septuagenarian behind with this sham of a melody.) isobel campbell puts forth the too-cutesy-by-half-though-otherwise-enjoyable "family tree," and sarah martin delivers the purty/gothy "waiting for the moon," one of the best tunes on the album, in her first effort as a songwriter.

what about the lyrics? what about the lyrics? i know that b&s fans delight in stuart's idiosyncratic, clever-boy lyrics, but frankly, i don't give a damn. most who read this site already know my position on lyrics, and i'm not going to repeat it. in this case, the music doesn't make me interested enough to care what is being said, no matter how heartbreaking or witty. sorry, that's just how i am.

so can i recommend this album? no. at best, i'm going to use the "g" word and hope that it's a grower. at worst, after a few listens, it's going to languish in obscurity. two albums come to mind when listening to this one: the first is the aforementioned nixon and the other is air's moon safari. compared to the former, fyhc lacks the tunes and the presence of a kurt wagner, lyrically and vocally; compared to the latter, an album which i constantly remarked was like a dream in that you couldn't remember what it sounded like after it stopped playing, it lacks the genius and pop smarts of the arrangements. can i recommend this album to b&s fans? yes, but that's as needless as recommending coke to a junkie. a disappointment, then, but not entirely unexpected.

the dangers of rushing to judgement: yesterday, i reviewed the new belle & sebastian album. in the final paragraph, i said that, at best, i believe it would be a grower.

well, i was correct in that assessment. listening to it again, i realize that it is a better album than i gave it credit for. and, yesterday, it was a better album than i gave it credit for too. in retrospect, i was a bit too harsh.

i'll go as far as to say that, if you were to cull the first 6 tracks from the album, it would make a very good ep. "i fought in a war" reminds me of "the state that i am in," but with a mournful tone; "the model," with its winding melody and gorgeous strings, may be the best song on the album, in my opinion; "beyond the sunrise" grows ever more haunting; "waiting for the moon" remains a good first effort for sarah martin; the strings on "don't leave the light on, baby" are redolent of serge gainsbourg's "melody" and the overall atmosphere is very relaxed; "the wrong girl" is a welcome uptempo jaunt, though it'd be insignificant taken out of the context of the album.

the second half of the album is significantly weaker, with "the chalet lines" continuing to be immemorable, and "nice day for a sulk" and the first half of "women's realm" remain top examples of why people loathe b&s so. if an album starts off weak, and gradually gets stronger, the beginning is forgivable; as things stand, though, this album ends up being disappointing as the promise of the first half is utterly wasted. i guess the quick solution would be to put the first 6 tracks on repeat. however, with its somnolent tone, be sure not to operate any heavy machinery.

wait a second...heavy machinery? i'm talking to belle & sebastian fans here. what am i thinking! ha ha ha!