Pssst: who wants to know about the new Belle & Sebastian LP?

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'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' is a cracker - possibly the best thing they've ever done, definitely a return to form after 'Storytelling'. Among the highpoints are 'I'm A Cuckoo' with twin guitars, Thin Lizzy-style and lyrics which acknowledge the conceit ("I'd rather be in Tokyo/Rather listen to Thin Lizzy-o"). Also, 'Stay Loose' is 80s style electro pop, with suberb Skynyrd guitar breaks and 'You Don't Send Me' is mellow soul with a great falsetto from Stuart Mudoch. First single will be 'Step Into My Office Baby' which is as jaunty and comical as Half Man Half Biscuit and contains some wry couplets using dull office work as a metaphor for sex.

― laticsmon, Monday, 8 September 2003 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

So it's not some kind of happyclappy Godspell meets ELO meets Free Design then?

I think the man down the road has got the whole thing off soulseek now, but I haven't even really considered going and getting it off him. I'm so old and jaded.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 8 September 2003 10:21 (twenty-one years ago)

How do the vocals break down? How many does Stuart Murdoch sing, how many does Stevie Jackson sing, etc...? And is the Trevor Horn production notable in any way, or does it sound similar to their other records? I can't wait to hear this piece.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

check it out for yourself.. there's about 25 people sharing it on slsk...

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I got scurred and took slsk off my 'puter. I guess I'll just wait until it comes out and buy it...

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Step Into My Office" is the only thing I've ever unreservedly liked from them. It's like "Good Vibrations" set in 'The Office'.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

"I'm A Cuckoo" is pretty damn great.

― retort pouch (retort pouch), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't want to know abt it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I got a promo in the mail on Friday, and it has yet to leave my CD player. Multiple sequential plays, the kind of response I've seldom had since teenhood. The string arrangements are astounding!

― Uncle (Methuselah), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Borbetamagus is my favorite group, but Derek Baily is the greatest recording artist of all time. This is not objectively true. Any attempt to argue will be met with asinine questions.

― Julio-bot (Keiko), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I like what I've heard and I'm lookgin forward to it.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 8 September 2003 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

B&S makes me nostalgic. I will buy this because of a youthful yearning.

― scott m (mcd), Monday, 8 September 2003 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

julio-bot OTM.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 8 September 2003 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm currently listening to B&S on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic." So far, "Step Into My Office, Baby" is ace.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 September 2003 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

RJG OTM.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 8 September 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I liked Step Into My Office Baby when I heard them play it at the Glasgow concert but since then I got it into my head that it was terrible, because of the title i think. 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' is a pretty awful title too.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually really love "DCW" as a title.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"DCW" is one of the three I've heard and probably my favorite. It's the one that most sounds like B&S + Trevor Horn... Folk pop with wild string runs

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:34 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

"Piazza, New York Catcher" is the best song on the album

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

If by "best," you mean "worst."

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

That "slipping meanings around" thing works on me every time, jaymc. Genuine chuckle. Well played. Even though I disagree (with you and Milo -- I think "Stay Loose" is the best and "Piazza" falls somewhere in the middle).

Has anyone heard the B&S Young Marble Giants cover from the Rough Trade comp. yet? Curious...

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Come on folks. "If She Wants Me" is obviously the best.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm, well, I've only listened to the album twice now, and I'm at work, so I haven't been able to pay attention to lyrics yet. Not that I usually do, anyway, though...

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I still don't want to know.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The Young Marble Giants cover is done in the style of "Electronic Renaissance." Stay Loose is the best song B&S have ever done.

― reclusive hero (reclusive hero), Thursday, 9 October 2003 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The YMG cover is piss-poor.

― alext (alext), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

That whole Rough Trade compilation is piss poor.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm curious about this record. I think I will buy it in Glasgow.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:48 (twenty-one years ago)

four weeks pass...

I really like it.

― felicity (felicity), Friday, 7 November 2003 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I do too!!

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 7 November 2003 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"but my strength is in administration"!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 7 November 2003 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

4 years on - this holds up pretty well.

― Bob Six, Thursday, 13 March 2008 22:04 (seventeen years ago)

Yeah, but it's not the new B&S album, is it?

― Mark G, Thursday, 13 March 2008 22:11 (seventeen years ago)

Oh, it's one of the best albums ever made. Perfect pop music. "Lord Anthony" still sucks, though.

― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 13 March 2008 22:31 (seventeen years ago)

I like the Life Pursuit as well.

― felicity, Thursday, 13 March 2008 22:40 (seventeen years ago)

it strikes me that they are getting v lazy.

― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 14 March 2008 09:08 (seventeen years ago)

Like their compatriots the Blue Nile!

― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 14 March 2008 09:08 (seventeen years ago)

I don't think they're getting lazy - Stuart Murdoch has been working on writing/directing/scoring a movie, from what I've heard - which can be a several-year process.

― Savannah Smiles, Friday, 14 March 2008 10:04 (seventeen years ago)

I thought he was doing a musical with teenage girls.

― Alba, Friday, 14 March 2008 10:35 (seventeen years ago)

ROCK

― strgn, Friday, 14 March 2008 11:08 (seventeen years ago)

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