I finally bought the new Belle and Sebastian album. I thought this would be the first one I didn’t even bother with. I was wrong. Last album was pretty much a write-off, except for the sublime “Piazza, New York Catcher”. Anyway, I’m not sure that I would have bought this album if not for the strength of that one song and, it’s pathetic, but if the leftmost cover model didn’t look uncannily like my sister April, especially with her new short un-ballet haircut.

B&S were so much better when they just sounded like themselves. “Song for sunshine” sounds like the worst Sly and the Family Stone song ever. “The blues are still blue” sounds like T. Rex. “White Collar Boy” sounds like “Spirit in the sky” for the first 15 seconds, down to the reverb.

If you crave new B&S without all the faux Partridge Family BS, just buy the live version of If You’re Feeling Sinister. Or re-listen to the 1996-7 series of 3 EPs.
(*Thanks to Terri for coining the ‘partridge family’ line).

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