Belle and Sebastian - "This is Just a Modern Rock Song" EP
Like Morrissey and Tori Amos Scottish octet Belle and Sebastian don't have fans so much as they have acolytes. But there's been some rumbling in the B&S camp; grumbles that The Boy With the Arab Strap wasn't as good as If You're Feeling Sinister (and I suppose Tigermilk from those lucky enough to own a copy).
While TBWTAS saw the band exploring some new sounds and textures some have complained that it lacked the wit and emotion of previous work. So what are we to make of a four song EP released just four months after the album?
While references to Twain and Doestoesky hint that "This is Just a Modern Rock Song" could be B&S's very own "Cemetry Gates" the snail's pace kills the mood. Clocking in at just over seven minutes it's too slow and meandering for its own good. It's not until guitarist Stevie Jackson joins Stuart Murdoch's melancholy vocals at the 4:45 minute mark that the song starts to take off. The song improves upon repeated listenings but it's far too sluggish to convert first time listeners to the Church of Belle and Sebastian. Still, some top lyrics though including a little good natured mocking of the band's bedsit image when Stevie sings, "Stuart's staying in, and he thinks it's a sin/That he has to leave the house at all".
The second song, "I Know Where the Summer Goes" is a nice counterpart to "A Summer Wasting" on The Boy With the Arab Strap. It's nice, but essentially harmless. Unfortunately, Isobel Campbell's "The Gate" doesn't fare much better. While Isobel's vocals were refreshing on TBWTAS here they verge dangerously into cutesy cuddlecore Shoen Knife/Cub territory. Has a nice piano break though.
"Slow Graffiti" is definitely the best track. It uses my favourite B&S "cliche" (if there can be such a thing): Stuart starting off the song with hushed hesitant vocals before blossoming into a singer with a billion times more passion then Celine Dion could ever dream of possessing. "Listen Johnny/You're like a mother to the girl you've fallen for/And you're still falling" he croons with the voice that's melted the hearts of hundreds of indie kids. But whereas "Modern Rock Song" was too long, "Slow Graffiti" is too short. Just as the song starts to really get going with a lovely orchestral arrangement it begins to fade out.
If you're not a die-hard B&S fan I'm tempted to recommend the soundtrack to the upcoming film The Acid House since "Slow Graffiti" is on it. But do B&S have any other sort of fans aside from die-hards?
So have they lost it? Has the most important band since the Smiths become victim to their own myth? I like to think not. These songs aren't bad, they're just not jaw-droppingly brilliant like so much of B&S's material. So, all in all a good addition to for the B&S fan, but not the best place to start for new fans.
