Aaaaah, the backlash has set in for this Scottish collaboration.
\nIt took a bit of time (this is album number four), but the
\n‘coolies,’ who dove onto the concept that B&S were maybe ‘the
\nnew Smiths,’ are now on to something else.<\/p>\n
I doubt Stuart Murdoch, et al, really mind. Hot on the heels of
\na re-issue of several EPs of theirs, and the “Legal Man” single,
\ncomes this new CD, which I’ve already heard is ‘nah, not as good
\nthis time\u2026’ I actually liked it better than 1998’s
\nThe Boy With The Arab Strap<\/i>. Nothing will probably approach
\nthe first experience I (or anyone) has had of hearing the band (for
\nme, it was a grimy compilation tape from England, with bits of the
\nDog On Wheels<\/i> EP), but
\nFold\u2026<\/i> actually surprised me, especially after hearing
\nso many ‘maybes’ about it.<\/p>\n
For starters, Stuart Murdoch relinquishes a bit of the vocal
\nduties this time. Sharing the microphone and pen with Isobel
\nCampbell, Sarah Martin, Chris Geddes, and Stevie Jackson. The femme
\nvocals, in particular, though they have been done in the past, were
\nquite impressive, and opened up each song, making the emotions in
\nthe lyrics all the more there.<\/p>\n
Dunno why that is, but I guess it’s just a long way of saying
\nthat the variety helped. Stuart David played on much of this CD,
\nbut left shortly thereafter, and is now focusing his attention on
\nhis other band, Looper. Recorded over the course of fourteen
\nmonths, this breathes a bit more. It feels more spacious, thought
\nout and planned, than, say,
\nTigermilk<\/i>, which was recorded and mixed in a matter of days.
\nThere are also quite a number of ‘guest musicians.’ Session
\nplayers, rather than the band grabbing acquaintances of theirs to
\nhelp.<\/p>\n
A plaintive, moody, record, but what did you really expect?
\nTechno? Grindcore? Frat-core ready power-pap-punk? This probably
\nwon’t surprise the quiet, studious mass of die-hards, or cause a
\nmelee at the next B&S-inspired poetry reading, but it doesn’t
\nsound like a band treading water either. I just saw a photo of the
\nup-until-recently-never-interviewed Stuart Murdoch in
\nTime<\/i> magazine. I deeply respect this band. Instead of making
\nthemselves shift to fit the times, they’re doing quite the
\nopposite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":26404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6869],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37636","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-belle-and-sebastian","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37636"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}