Belle & Sebastian - Life Pursuit
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Belle & SebastianEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-02-07
Music Label: Matador Records
Soundtracks:
- ACT OF THE APOSTLE
- ANOTHER SUNNY DAY
- WHITE COLLAR BOY
- THE BLUES ARE STILL BLUE
- DRESS UP IN YOU
- SUKIE IN THE GRAVEYARD
- WE ARE THE SLEEPYHEADS
- SONG FOR SUNSHINE
- FUNNY LITTLE FROG
- TO BE MYSELF COMPLETELY
- ACT OF THE APOSTLE II
- FOR THE PRICE OF A CUP OF TEA
- MORNINGTON CRESCENT
Free Music Notes for Life Pursuit
Free Music Review: The Transfiguration of Belle and Sebastian
Hit: 5 Stars
I must admit that I have been waiting three years for this moment and for an opportunity to review this album.
This record finds Belle and Sebastian as confident and self-assured as ever but just as important--those things on their own terms. The band has finally come into its own (and this indicates to me that they will be keepers rather than a static "decade band" whose relevence wanes as it moves beyond its impulsive, energetic early years). One might have once wondered if the band could ever diversify musically beyond its twee and at times precious temperment. The music on this record definitively answers that they can and are so doing. This music is adventerous and different than anything we've heard from them before. That said, Belle and Sebastian reassert themselves rather than adopt a contrived, false identity. That is the ultimate power of the record for me. Let me explain how:
The song "Song for Sunshine" is reminiscent of the 70s, of course, and even has some funk beats to it. The title and the chorus express a romantic optimism. Think of all the bad self-indulgent poetry out there about landscapes, sunsets and vases of flowers. Some will argue that the beauty of life lies in the fact that "we all see the same sky" and that the existential power of life lies in the fact that we are all "asking the same why"...
While engaging the optimism of lyrical and musical romanticisms with the upbeat tempo and, like I said, the chorus, Belle and Sebastian subvert our false sense of joy by prompting us to ask ourselves if the sky does indeed look the same to the "millions of people (who) never start the race" and when "honey'd sweet apples are rotting away".
For those of us in this culture accustomed to building ourselves up through niche consumer lifestyles and urban consumption, the song should give us some pause. The man "filled with longing desire" is the man (or woman) filled with a dangerous desire to consume the earth ("the gifts of creation are ready for hire"), to construct identity through semiotic appropriations of brands and branded identities and "types" ("a look and a label are all I require") and to utterly forget that others in the world pay the real price for our "cheap flight" lives. How optimistic can the music really be when our desires for these things are so unbridled and rapacious ("Enough's not enough, I never ask why)? Much has been noted in recent times about Murdoch's own spiritual journey. He offers moments of hope in other songs but not here. This is actually one of the darkest songs of the Belle and Sebastian catalogue even as it sounds like one of the most perky and upbeat (which is a perfect juxtaposition with which to capture life in glitzy blinky blinky funtertania).
By our failing to recognize causality in the world, the "wheel of fortune" comes crashing down in a dark suffering that is hidden by the sweet and, therefore, sly melody.
Taking this song as an example, Belle and Sebastian are at their literate best but, more important to me, they are as engaged as ever with the "real world" and the overwrought optimism and commodified sweetness that sugar over the suffering of others to borrow from Shakespeare.
These are fighting words if you have the ear to listen...or the courage to care.
Now...listen to the album. Listen to that song in particular. Or "White Collar Boy". Think of Enron. Or MCI. Or Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. Then read this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11205909/
Life Pursuit Poster
Japanese limited special edition includes DVD. Virgin Records. 2006.Oh to be free and frivolous, like Stuart Murdoch and his extensive cast of players as they engage The Life Pursuit. There's no "Take Your Carriage Clock and Shove It" or "Get Me Away from Here, I?m Dying" on this disc. Life has gotten easier, it seems, since Belle and Sebastian's early days. To boot, since 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, the Belle cast has indulged a more 70s-era set of influences: Isn't that Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" beat on the funny "White Collar Boy," a near sequel to "Step Into My Office, Baby"? And how about the T-Rex touch on the opening of "The Blues Are Still Blue"? No worries, Belle and Sebastian retain their gleam flawlessly. A jaunty lift is still in their step, a carefree abandon that charms even as it also reaches to the 70s for the funk-meets-psychedelia, "Song for Sunshine." It's bright and breezy throughout (the titles tell some of the story: "Another Sunny Day" and "Funny Little Frog"), with memorably decorous, familiar bouncing rhythms marking much of the album. The downtone "Dress Up in You" and "Mornington Crescent" are spare and lovely, wide-open in their pacing. All the same, "For the Price of a Cup of Tea," almost triggers a sing-along with just its name. --Andrew Bartlett
More from Belle & Sebastian
 Push Barman to Open Old Wounds |  The Boy with the Arab Strap |  Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant |
 If You're Feeling Sinister |  Tigermilk |  Belle & Sebastian--Fans Only |
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