BELLE AND SEBASTIAN
Belle and Sebastian are back. Or, rather, they’re cashing in on what they’ve already released. Again. Push Barman to Open Old Wounds is a chronological collection of EPs and singles dating from 1997. Just imagine, then, the gems you would expect to find. Plugged for their hilarious and occasionally brutal lyrics, the band certainly don’t disappoint (for example ‘The State I Am In’ declares “my brother had confessed that he was gay/it took the heat off me for a while”).
Frankly, it’s a darn good job the lyrics are so incredibly amusing. Otherwise, there is disappointingly little else to recommend them.
But then again what good is wit when, at its height, it is lost in the jaws of the mumbling man? Certainly, there are unequivocally brilliant tracks, not least the earliest • ‘Dog On Wheels’, and the sheer variety created by merging different tempos, speaking and singing, and even different languages (just a few of the tricks to keep you focussed) also serves to distract from the occasional painfully dull track.
Overall, though, Push Barman to Open Old Wounds leaves you full of confusion, and is, quite honestly, a bit of a let-down. Embarrassingly, guest singer Monica Queen on ‘Lazy Painter Jane’ puts the other vocals to shame somewhat. Yet still she compliments the sound being created. And this is just typical of the release; for everything with which you find fault, something else renders it beautiful.
As a fence-sitter, this is hardly an album to convert you, and if these are their most popularist tracks, you have to wonder if anything ever will.
19th May 2005