If you can't stand the title wait for the artwork and tracklist, anticipating ''Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance' by Belle and Sebastian

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/news/57069/595ed64b.jpeg

01. Nobody's Empire
02. Allie
03. The Party Line
04. The Power of Three
05. The Cat with the Cream
06. Enter Sylvia Plath
07. The Everlasting Muse
08. Perfect Couples
09. Ever Had a Little Faith?
10. Play for Today
11. The Book of You
12. Today (This Army's for Peace)

I wonder how many other Belle and Sebastian fans live around these parts? I rarely ever touched Write About Love (except I Want The World Tto Stop and Sunday Pretty Icons) but I am excited for this one, as always.

Even without the bonus tracks or "extended mixes" (?!) this sucker's a full hour long. The track in the teaser ("Cat With the Cream") sounds really nice, though.

It's kind of amazing that it's taken them this long to have tracks called "Play For Today" and "The Book of You".

dreadful album cover.

ENTER PLATH !!

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/27900000/james-hetfield-james-hetfield-27992288-471-959.jpg

ENTER SYLVIA !!

first single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7CP2zxS4zo

WTF.

The Life Pursuit would've been an excellent time for them to decide to stop making records.

Hoping that this one's a weird outlier, but the press released did namecheck disco, so...

okay lol @ this

it's like they said "I really like 'Reflektor' but it's not boring enough"

2nd listen was less overtly offensive but still regrettable, there is no singer alive I want dance instruction from less than Stuart Murdoch

The last Belle & Sebastian songs I really loved were Stay Loose and Your Cover's Blown. I always wanted to them to go further in that el direction but it now seems like that was a terrible idea if this what they come up with. Awful single.

OTM. Sounds like they are trying to compete with the (imho totally moribund) North American indie/alternative scene of today. When they were good, they remained apart from that impulse. The thing that would get me interested in this band again would be if they just did an album where it simply sounded like a bunch of musicians playing live together. Their strength was always the songwriting and that is being sidelined for this bland studio confection bullshit.

Johnny Fever OTM. They really didn't need to do anything after that album

Grand Boredomfest Hotel

Maybe 20 years from now we'll all decide we actually like this, like New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

Naw, I liked NAIHF right away.

Is this what OK Go sound like? I don't think I have ever heard a song by OK Go, but this is what they sound like in my head.

I actually thought the last album had a few really great songs.

This totally does not sound like OK Go.

I can't tell if that song is shitty or not, but it is telling that for once I wish Stuart wasn't singing.

I scanned the titles of the last album and can't recall a single track, which makes it the first B&S album I've totally blanked on since "Fold Your Hands," another album whose titles don't even ring a faint bell. I liked "Life Pursuit" a lot at the time, though.

i like this

I actually thought the last album had a few really great songs.

― Simon H., Tuesday, October 28, 2014 11:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, title track w carey mulligan is great

OK Go sound like a poor-man's Hot Chip in my head. Is that what this sounds like?

Carey Mulligan is so the actor to collaborate with B&S

OK Go make eyepopping videos to distract you from their bland 12-gen Weezer throwaway power pop.

are they the ones who were running on the treadmills and stuff?

yeah they seem to have hit on that formula years ago and are just sticking with it. it must be working for them.

xpost yeah

it's one of the more obviously careerist turns for an erstwhile "indie" band

they already had 'electronic renaissance' for the ages, and 'my clover's blown'.

that song feels so unnecessary :(

"The Party Line"?
s/b "The Panty Line"....

New track, Nobody's Empire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgb8am3NQU0

Is that the most generic intro to a B&S song ever?

Much better than the debut single at least.

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/11/376089901/first-listen-belle-and-sebastian-girls-in-peacetime-want-to-dance

It's out! It's weird!

you made a list of all your heroes
and you thought abt what they went through
yeah you thought abt what they went through
its much darker, much harder than anything that happened to you

Great lyrics on this album

im not really a fan but the single i heard on 6music did NOT make me want to dance.

then again im not a girl in peacetime so am clearly not the right audience.

"Nobody's Empire" has really grown on me. On first listen to the rest there are lots of highs and lows that will hopefully also even out over time... The electro songs are unsalvageable though.

"Enter Sylvia Plath" has grown on me quite a bit...I love the Sarah Martin solo and the long outro jam.

this turned out pretty good!

definitely more alive than write about love

Not much of a review, this review: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20135-girls-in-peacetime-want-to-dance/
Also, scratching my head at this:

it’s still a perfectly respectable hour of Northern soul-influenced pop, even if it’s difficult not to hear the intention behind every song. (Or to shake the feeling that a band like Cut Copy is much better at this shambling soul revue style of music.)

Cut Copy? Soul revue style? Really?

cut copy! jeez, it's not 2008.

this is a good album

the things people dislike about B&S and the things they like about them post-Arab Strap are so different. I hated "life pursuit" and didn't like that last album much, but the explicit pop and genre grabs of this and Catastrophe Waitress really grab me. None of it is as good as the first album or string of EPs but whatever.

sorry for using the word 'grab' twice in one sentence.

and by first album I mean second album.

catastrophe is my favorite b&s record. i like this a lot. life pursuit is fine but too long (a problem with this one) and a lot of the tracks are inert, overorchestrated, and directionless ("song for sunshine," the acts of the apostle), write about love lacked tunes

sinister and tigermilk of course peerless but i think their consistency is overstated. fold your hands maaaad underrated. arab strap actually my least favorite b&s lp idk

the end.

Cut Copy? Soul revue style? Really?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, January 21, 2015 6:22 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is weird. maybe they're thinking of someone else

According to Spotify at least one ilxor has had this on heavy rotation today
/spotshaming

I largely pre-ordered this out of a sense of duty but it's actually really good - certainly more immediately appealing to me than 'Write About Love'.

I don't even remember anything about WAL.

I like this a lot but I'd cut "Party Line" and one or two others. I like the b-side "A Politician's Silence."

"Cat With the Cream" is every bit as lovely as the clip suggested

the synth arpeggios on "enter sylvia plath" remind me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYxlqTpZ-24

Really into "Play for Today"

Totally blown away by "Nobody's Empire," like to the point where I can't listen any further.

Really like that track too. Hoping the rest of the album will click with me soon.

"Play for Today" is the immediate standout for me.

Yeah, that's the killer. Nobody's Empire floors me too.

I've always been sceptical about B+S but this is really good! Prefer the more trad songs (esp "Ever Had a Little Faith?", which I've been humming all day) over the ones where they seem to be shooting for the last Arcade Fire album.

im enjoying this esp. "enter sylvia plath"

i have not been in the mood to hear this at all, but I'm finally listening to it now and agree that Play for Today is absolutely splendid.

i really love this album. their best since 'life pursuit'.

It really, really grew on me. "Enter Sylvia Plath" is really the only weak spot, the other two big "electropop" songs are great. And "Nobody's Empire" is probably one of the best stereotypical B&S songs ever.

anyone got the 4lp version?

"Play for Today" is the immediate standout for me.

I prefer the version by The Cure.

anyone got the 4lp version?

Yeah, it's a nice box except for the slightly annoying fact that the disco tunes are pressed at 45rpm and the others are 33. Though the disco songs are extended mixes and take up a whole side. There are 4 extra songs, too - it's slightly resequenced. I like this album!

I'm just staring to listen to this now. I've been a huge fan of theirs, up to and including Write About Love, but I've avoided this up till now. Pretty lukewarm reviews and an ILM half-ass thread has given me pause. But after digesting the first handful of songs, I'm really feeling this album so far.

I was also a big B&S fan up through Dear Catastrophe Waitress, but then I sort of grew disinterested (even though I always liked that album) and stopped paying attention to them. I've been listening to this one on Spotify just about every other day now for the past month. Nobody's Empire and Play For Today are dual standouts for me.

I like most of the tracks on this album, but it's a bit of a schizophrenic journey if you spin the whole thing. The bouncing back & forth between classic B&S-type sounds and the electro-pop tracks doesn't serve either side very well.

Definitely a successor to Dear Catastrophe Waitress imo. Similar sense of adventure and scope, if a little incohesive. Rather the occasional misfire than comfort-zone tedium. Agree that Nobody's Empire and Play for Today are the clear standouts.

I was also a big B&S fan up through Dear Catastrophe Waitress, but then I sort of grew disinterested (even though I always liked that album)

Is this a bit too similar to the 'New Jersey' experience to start a thread? So many bands I kind of just gave up on despite their last album being great. I'm thinking Pearl Jam, who I followed all the way through my adolescence but stopped listening to all together after Yield. Even though I often think Yield of as being one of their best records, I somehow have never bothered to check out Binaural or anything after.

Binaural nothing great, but everything else has been at least solid with moments of excitement.

I stopped caring about B&S as soon as I heard The Life Pursuit but this album has won me back. I love it when that happens.

TLP definitely had its moments but I agree it felt like a tip over into not quite so inspired work. Not quite sure what set it apart from the other stuff really. It wasn't necessarily treading old material and a lot of the songs were strong, but it just didn't feel as effortless maybe...

Write About Love entered the UK albums chart in its first week of release, peaking at No. 8 as of 19 October 2010.[17] This marks their highest chart placement yet, tied with their previous studio album The Life Pursuit.

Really?? Wow...

Life Pursuit was (I think) about where I tuned out. Had just had enough or something. Maybe I'll give this a spin...

12 Belle And Sebastian The Boy With The Arab Strap Sep 1998
13 Belle And Sebastian Tigermilk Jul 1999
10 Belle And Sebastian Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant Jun 2000
26 Belle And Sebastian Storytelling Jun 2002
21 Belle And Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress Oct 2003
40 Belle And Sebastian Push Barman To Open Old Wounds Jun 2005
8 Belle And Sebastian The Life Pursuit Feb 2006
88 Belle And Sebastian The BBC Sessions Nov 2008
8 Belle And Sebastian Write About Love Oct 2010
44 Belle And Sebastian The Third Eye Centre Sep 2013
9 Belle And Sebastian Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance Jan 2015

This is such a strange one. I immediately wrote it off in my first 2-3 listens at the start of the year, and now I'm wondering if it's their best ever. Nobody's Empire, Cat with the Cream, The Everlasting Muse and Play for today are just great, great songs that I can't imagine not having in my life now...

love this record. "book of you," "power of three," "play for today." their best since dcw?

holy shit Nobody's Empire is amazing. i had no idea.

I was very underwhelmed with this. One of last year's biggest disappointments.

piscesx otm

Ended up liking this album a lot more than I expected to after also being extremely disappointed on the first couple of listens. Bonus track "A Politician's Silence" is worth hunting down too.

looove this album

"Enter Sylvia Plath" is really the only weak spot

o_O