While on tour with Belle & Sebastion, vocalist Stuart Murdoch started to write songs that he considered to be aside from B&S. He began to tell a story with the songs of a Scottish girl hospitalized with mental insanity. He decided to audition singers to tell the story on an album entitled God Help the Girl. All of the songs on God Help the Girl, which was released today, are new songs, with the exception of "Funny Little Frog" which appeared on the B&S album the Life Pursuit.
The vocalists chosen by Murdoch to tell the story behind God Help the Girl are Catherine Ireton, Brittany Stallings, Neil Hannon, Asya, and himself, on two of the tracks. The album feels like a Belle & Sebastian album minus Stuart...all of the songs have a distinctly B&S feel, without the distinct B&S vox. This does not make the album bad, just different. Most of the vocalists are really good...Ireton is fantastic, and I believe that she will go on to have quite a career in music.
I realize that some are saying GHTG is underwhelming, but, listening to it, I think it is very well written, sung greatly and played brilliantly. I don't know if this is due to a bias that I hold (Belle & Sebastian are one of my favorite bands of all time), but whatever the case be, I would highly recommend God Help the Girl.
Key tracks: "God Help the Girl", "Pretty Eve in the Tub", "Hiding 'neath the Umbrella", "Funny Little Frog", "Come Monday Night", "I'll Have to Dance With Cassie".
No comments:
Post a Comment