Album review: Belle & Sebastian The Life Pursuit
(One of my 101 things is to listen to & review some old albums.)
It was a toss-up between this & Tigermilk to review, but I figured that reviewing something that was released after about 1998 would be a change.
The thing is: I do like this album, and I've listened to it a fair amount, but what it mostly is is pleasant, which is hard to write anything particularly scintillating about. I mean: it's still B&S, and I like B&S. They have nice twangly melodies, and bouncy drum bits, and I like Stuart's voice (I think the word 'wistful' is usually employed at this point). They do have some quality lyrics, also.
I like 'Another Sunny Day', although it is hard to see that title and not get the Smiths in your head as some kind of weird mashup over whatever else is playing at the time. (This is doubtless deliberate.)
'White Collar Boy' has squelchy keyboard bits! For about 8 bars, until we get the twangly guitars again.
'The Blues Are Still Blue' is doubtless the one I know best, and I'm very fond of it. (I love the line 'She's taken an elementary class in kung-fu".) Also I can't listen to this without dancing just a little bit, which is a Good Thing in a song.
Ah yes, another good thing B&S have: trumpet solos! Score.
'Sukie In The Graveyard' is another one that's good and bouncy, and tells a splendid story about Sukie hanging out at art school and 'wiping the floor with all the arseholes'.
'Funny Little Frog' is another one I know reasonably well. Lots of these have very much the same feel/rhythm to them, though: it's not a bad thing, but listening to the whole thing at once kind of shows that up.
I like the laziness of 'Act of the Apostle II'. ("If you've got to grow up sometime, you've got to do it on your own.")
Summary: still good, still B&S.
It was a toss-up between this & Tigermilk to review, but I figured that reviewing something that was released after about 1998 would be a change.
The thing is: I do like this album, and I've listened to it a fair amount, but what it mostly is is pleasant, which is hard to write anything particularly scintillating about. I mean: it's still B&S, and I like B&S. They have nice twangly melodies, and bouncy drum bits, and I like Stuart's voice (I think the word 'wistful' is usually employed at this point). They do have some quality lyrics, also.
I like 'Another Sunny Day', although it is hard to see that title and not get the Smiths in your head as some kind of weird mashup over whatever else is playing at the time. (This is doubtless deliberate.)
'White Collar Boy' has squelchy keyboard bits! For about 8 bars, until we get the twangly guitars again.
'The Blues Are Still Blue' is doubtless the one I know best, and I'm very fond of it. (I love the line 'She's taken an elementary class in kung-fu".) Also I can't listen to this without dancing just a little bit, which is a Good Thing in a song.
Ah yes, another good thing B&S have: trumpet solos! Score.
'Sukie In The Graveyard' is another one that's good and bouncy, and tells a splendid story about Sukie hanging out at art school and 'wiping the floor with all the arseholes'.
'Funny Little Frog' is another one I know reasonably well. Lots of these have very much the same feel/rhythm to them, though: it's not a bad thing, but listening to the whole thing at once kind of shows that up.
I like the laziness of 'Act of the Apostle II'. ("If you've got to grow up sometime, you've got to do it on your own.")
Summary: still good, still B&S.