Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit Posted on February 24th, 2006 by Rich Belize
Belle & Sebastian
The Life Pursuit
Matador Records
My listening relationship with the band Belle & Sebastian is quite odd. While I own and enjoy their recent Push Barman to Open Old Wounds re-issue, I find myself repulsed and annoyed with the overbearing preciousness that defines the band’s career work. The Boy with the Arab Strap and Dear Catastrophe Waitress are the other two records I own and whether it is the former’s fragile and hushed delivery or the latter’s off putting self-indulgence, I am simply not buying into it. Is lowering the master volume of a record really a production aesthetic? I literally have to turn my stereo up a few levels in order to hear what Stuart Murdoch is whispering on The Boy with the Arab Strap.
With that said I still somehow consider myself a fan of the band. Dog on Wheels, I’m Waking Up to Us, I Love my Car, The State That I am In, and Beautiful are all great songs that I really enjoy. There is a timeless quality to them that comes off less calculated and forcefully soft spoken than their middle records. It is these few songs that keep me around and still interested in what Belle & Sebastian have to offer, including their latest release The Life Pursuit.
A quick expository beat in opening track Act of the Apostle tips the listener off that this is still the well produced and contemporary incarnation of Belle & Sebastian, however things are a bit different this time around. Rather than exploding with keyboards or the clanging of guitars set to 11 on the treble scale, the song finds comfort in its own modest skin. The band’s ability to show reserve is much welcomed, elevating the Life Pursuit above it’s predecessor. Songs like Another Sunny Day, Song for Sunshine, and Funny Little Frog are the best songs the band has recorded in a handful of years and shadow over anything you might have heard on Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Even Stuart Murdoch sounds personable again, his voice contributing quite well to tracks like The Blues Are Still Blue and White Collar Boy.
As a whole, The Life Pursuit exudes confidence without being too indulgent or over produced. The album also manages to bring back some of the humanity and personality that I enjoyed with Belle & Sebastian’s early material while still also adding new dimensions to the band’s growing repertoire (Sukie in the Graveyard, the dream-like We Are the Sleepyheads). After all but giving up on the band after Waitress, I am officially back to looking forward to what more Murdoch and company have to offer.
March 1, 2006 at 4:13 pm
This has a totally groovy sound. That ‘twang twang’ guitar just spells ‘good times’ at the start of Song for Sunshine. But the hippy voices may not appeal to a lot of listeners. Life Pursuit has more liveliness to it, but still carries some hippy with it. The singing makes me wonder whether the vocalist is a man or a woman, but that could be entirely at fault of the backup singing (which isn’t very well synched). Personally, I can see myself going for a single, but quickly getting a headache with a full-length album. I think this is more for background music at a BBQ than for your drive to visit your relatives.