Belle & Sebastian
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
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Belle & Sebastian
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
Matador, 2000
RiYL: Smiths, Nick Drake, Smiths, Field Mice, Smiths, Love, Smiths |
At the time of its release, the band's third album The Boy With The Arab Strap looked like a minor misstep in Belle & Sebastian's blooming career. In hindsight, however, it seems as though that album, coupled with the group's newest release, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant, is proof of a drying well of creativity on the part of lead singer Stuart Murdoch. Strap at least had "Sleep The Clock Around" to fall back on, I can't spot much here that I'd enjoy listening to repeatedly.
Albums like this are invariably difficult to criticize because there's so little to be offended by in the first place. Groups that don't aspire for grandiosity never have very far to fall. And part of Belle & Sebastian's irresistible charm was the effortless way they turned Murdoch's touchingly melancholy ruminations into melodic, bouncy tunes without any pretensions. But their career has always been dependent on two things: that their lyrics consistently avoided becoming self-parodic, and that the group always had an abundant supply of catchy melodies on hand. On both counts, Belle & Sebastian's formula is beginning to see some wear.
Fans of the album will be quick to point to songs like "There's Too Much Love" and "Woman's Realm" as arguments to the contrary. "Woman's Realm" earns immediate disqualification since it all but duplicates the bass line in Sinister's "Like Dylan In The Movies" and still isn't as good. And I'll concur that "There's Too Much Love" is a good song, but it's the last track, and getting through two-thirds of this album is pretty sufferable.
Much of the album is overproduced with string arrangements, while the songs without Stuart Murdoch on lead vocals are best avoided. Tracks like "Beyond the Sunrise," "Nice Day For A Sulk" and "The Chalet Lines" are just plain bad, the latter probably taking the Worst Of Album award for becoming the first non radio-playable Belle & Sebastian song. On the other hand, I'm sure that millions of fans will likely blush, cover their mouth in shock, giggle in embarrassment, and fall even more head-over-heels in love with the band because of it.
The one real unfortunate casualty of the album is "The Model," which is quite beautiful, but is also the real proof of the levels of farce that the band has reached. When the music stops and you're left to hear lines like "It was the best sex that she ever had" and "The girl next door who's famous for showing her chest" it's hard not to feel a little manipulated. The pre-release copy I listened to had a sticker which declared the band "shocking," which never seemed to me to be the point of a group like Belle & Sebastian. The words used to seem effortless, but it seems as if they've now been reduced to tactics which approach the base subtlety of Monty Python's "Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink" sketch.
In a way, I think, your reaction to the new Belle & Sebastian album will most likely parallel your first reaction to hearing that the album is called "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant." If, upon hearing those nine words, you thought, "Oh my God! This is going to be a great Belle & Sebastian album!" then you will probably think this a great Belle & Sebastian album. If, on the other hand, despite liking Belle & Sebastian, you had serious reservations about buying an album with that moniker, your intuition will prove correct.
DEVON REED |