Belle and Sebastian: The Life Pursuit

Eloquence and sunshine swirls about in the latest from the cherubic Scottish outfit. Like water off a duck’s back, the miseries of the world are repelled by The Life Pursuit, a plucky foray into Burt Bacharach territory.
Stuart Murdoch’s spindly croon permeates Glaswegian working class standards (the stomping ’70s jive “White Collar Boy”) and the contained acoustic angst of sweater-wearing sissies (“Dress Up in You,” where Sarah Martin’s backing vocals sweetly accentuate Murdoch’s aural disdain.)

Many of the tracks are evolutionary steps for this cheerfully ironic orchestra (the giddy, organ-heavy “Sukie in the Graveyard” and the early Elton John throwback “Funny Little Frog”.) But for every gem, there’s a dingy cubic zirconia giving off a forced sparkle. “We Are The Sleepyheads” is nauseating mod tripe, inundating listeners with a choir of comical ba-di-ba’s and oh-so-learned lyrics: “Over tea and gin we talked about things we read.” And the dreary closer “Mornington Cresent” comes off as little more than a sigh, an underachieving cousin of I’m Wide Awake Bright Eyes.

The Life Pursuit isn’t the overproduced death knell of these twee heroes the fans feared – it still holds its own against B&S necessities such as Tigermilk. But the saccharine assault won’t earn them any new fans.

- Melissa Bobbitt
(Matador Records)