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Belle & Sebastian
The Life Pursuit
(Matador)
The Music Box's #11 album of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, March 2006, Volume 13, #3
Written by John Metzger
Belle & Sebastian has had an improbable history, but against all odds, it
still is making albums — surprisingly great ones, at that. Begun by Stuart
Murdoch as a means of fulfilling a course requirement for a class about the
music business, the group somehow managed not only to coalesce into a functional
unit but also to craft some rather extraordinary material along the way. Despite
its initial desire to fly under the radar, the ensemble quickly found itself
enveloped by a rapidly growing cult of fans, but the added pressure of trying to
get lightning to strike the same spot on multiple occasions nearly caused the
band to implode.
After stumbling slightly in its quest to expand its horizons on Fold Your
Hands Child You Walk Like a Peasant, Belle & Sebastian sank under the weight
of the jumbled mess that was Storytelling, its only utterly inessential
outing. Seemingly down for the count and with little to lose, the collective
turned to fabled producer Trevor Horn for help in escaping its own tedium. The
resulting Dear Catastrophe Waitress, while not perfect, was a dramatic
recasting of the ensemble’s stylistic approach. Better still, the group
rediscovered the joy of making records, and sounding relaxed and confident, it
polished its stage presence, took to the road, and began to script a delightful
second chapter to its already storied career.
Although its latest endeavor The Life Pursuit draws from an equally
broad spectrum of influences, the material is presented in a far more cohesive
fashion. It helps, of course, that the opening track Act of the Apostle
resurfaces later in the set as Act of the Apostle II, intrinsically tying
together the disparate strands of its quirky character sketches to form a
loosely-knit conceptual work about sin and redemption. Nevertheless, it’s
producer Tony Hoffer, fresh from assisting Beck with Guero, who deserves
the most credit for the manner in which he retains the essence of Belle &
Sebastian’s past while also propelling it into the future. Another Sunny Day,
for example, echoes the muted air of the ensemble’s early outings, but here it’s
baked in the California brightness under which it was recorded.
Not that The Life Pursuit is necessarily a product of the 21st
century music business. More accurately, it continues Dear Catastrophe
Waitress’ ambitions of carrying Belle & Sebastian’s playful brand of ’60s
pop into the ’70s. From the Muswell Hillbillies horns that adorn Funny
Little Frog to the vocal inflection employed by Murdoch throughout the
endeavor, the Nick Drake-isms that fueled the group’s earlier material have
mutated fully into something that is decidedly more enamored with Ray Davies’
work with The Kinks. Elsewhere, the band laces The White Collar Boy with
the funky soul and fuzzy guitars of Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky;
and it tosses bits of glam (drawn from T-Rex and David Bowie) into both The
Blues Are Still Blue and Sukie in the Graveyard. Lyrically, Belle &
Sebastian still turns its witty observations into smartly conceived poetry, but
rarely has it sounded as impish as it does on The Life Pursuit. 
The Life Pursuit is available from Amazon.com.
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The Life Pursuit [Deluxe Edition] is
available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006
The Music Box
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