Belle & Sebastian’s new album, Write About Love, is about everything you could expect from Stuart Murdoch and ensemble. Similarly to 2006’s The Life Pursuit, this album was produced Tony Hoffer, and the combination works just as naturally on this record as it did the previous one.
The album art for Write About Love could possibly define everything to come from B&S. Staring out of windows with your hand on your chin is what to expect to hear from them and that is what you are going to get. Songs like “Calculating Bimbo” and “Little Lou,Ugly Jack, Prophet John” are pensive and reflective while “Write About Love” along with “I Want the World to Stop” are the customary upbeat songs about the bleak disappointments in everyday life. This is of course wouldn’t be a Belle and Sebastian creation without the stories of girls and breakups, albeit they are less focused this time around.
From the first song, “I Didn’t See it Coming”, you are hit with everything that made Belle & Sebastian authentic, besides an overload of Murdoch. For fans of the Scottish band, this album is not as Murdoch heavy as what has been established as the standard in our 70’s pop band. While his soft and easy tenner voice is always heard, it is not the driving point of every song anymore. Frankly I am refreshed by this subtle change; Belle & Sebastian become more of a collaboration of sounds with this new record instead of relying on one distinct lead singer.
Without a doubt this a focus on everything positive to come from the band. There was no real expansion into new sound territory but from that loss of experimentation we are presented with the best sounding songs to come from this group in years. Stuart Murdoch still writes magnificently smooth melodies, while making intricate packages of sound. This album is solidly constructed with the same Belle & Sebastian cool style of musical presentation.
WPGU Music Staff Rating: W-P-G
Key Tracks: “I Didn’t See It Coming”, “I’m Not Living in the Real World”, and “I Want the World to Stop”
Recommended if you like: Camera Obscura, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and Sufjan Stevens.
W = Poor
W-P = Fair
W-P-G = Great
W-P-G-U = An instant classic!
