ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Belle and Sebastian’s career can be split into two eras – lo-fi twee and hi-fi twee. The second era now has as many albums as the first, and while their first era might be the most loved, the second has been just as impressive.Girls In Peacetime Want To Dancecontinues the winning streak, an album that sees them incorporating dance elements into their now-perfected approach to songcraft.
The Glaswegians have flirted with dance styles since their debut. But for this album, they seem to have looked to ‘I Didn’t See It Coming’ (the sole highlight from Write About Love) as a guide and made an album indebted to disco. The change comes remarkably easy to the group. ‘Enter Sylvia Plath’ and ‘Play For Today’ are extended, synth-driven raves that help make the album the longest in the band’s discography, giving it an hour runtime. The length might not be justified; ‘The Party Line’ seems forced, and the chorus on ‘Perfect Couples’ is extremely awkward.
Remove those, and you have a 50-minute late-career album that introduces ten new gems into their songbook, with some of those – the klezmer-tinged ‘The Everlasting Muse’, ‘Nobody’s Empire’ (Stuart Murdoch’s personal account of chronic fatigue syndrome) and Sarah Martin’s ‘The Power Of Three’ – among the best they’ve ever done.
4/5.
Girls In Peacetime Want To Danceis out now throughMatador/Remote Control.
