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Review of CD - "The Life Pursuit " - Belle and Sebastian - by Thomas D. Havard

I've liked Belle and Sebastian for a bunch of years now, since "The Boy in the Arab Strap" came out in 1998. They are a 7 piece band from Scotland. If you haven't heard them by now, they make mostly breezy, non-power pop music, complete with guitars, drums, keyboards, trumpet, flute, and cello. Not the kind of music usually recommended on this site. Stuart Murdoch does most of the lead vocals, singing in an easy-going style about a range of subjects that are sometimes unclear to me, but usually interesting. They don't sound a lot like R.E.M., but B&S remind me of early R.E.M., with their understated beauty of instrumentation, melody and lyric. Take early R.E.M. oversees to Scotland, to a world foreign to me, and you might be somewhere near Belle and Sebastian. Do you remember movies and audio filmstrips we used to watch in Elementary School? These guys might have done the musical soundtracks to those, except that the members of the band probably were infants or weren't even born yet.

One of the many reasons that I like these guys so well might be because they are so foreign. With most bands or artists I like, I hear the music and think about how I could play that music myself. Well, I don't plan on copying Belle and Sebastian. What they play is nothing like what I play or pretend to play. Not to say they don't hit home with me, because they often do. It's just the world created in their songs is far away from mine. And the music sounds great.

This is supposed to be a review of "The Life Pursuit", but I haven't talked specifically about that album yet. It was released in February, 2006. Compared to earlier albums, this one is happier, more fun, less subdued, and maybe a little less obscure. The trademark B&S sound is still there, and the songs are amazing. My favorites are "For the Price of a Cup of Tea", "Blues are still Blue" and "Another Sunny Day", but they are pretty much all good. The CD also comes with a bonus DVD recorded for the BBC on which they perform 5 songs from this album. If you've never heard these guys before, listen to some clips online or in the record store before buying. They might not be for you, but I highly recommend them and this album. - T.H.