Belle & Sebastian / Write About Love

Belle & Sebastian
Write About Love
(Rough Trade)

I just can’t seem to get the knives out at the right time for Belle and Sebastian. Every time I think they’ve sold out, buggered up, over-polished and jumped the shark, they receive standing ovations. I wasn’t a fan of ‘The Life Pursuit’, incidentally.
Now they’re releasing an autumnal minor masterpiece that goes back to the early vulnerability of ‘Boy With The Arab Strap’ while maintaining the Motown pop sheen of their later records, and people can’t stop complaining. The grumpy bastards haven’t even heard the album yet!
The Scottish band’s third album for Rough Trade reaffirms what makes them so special: no other group can make you feel like a beret-wearing sculpture student on a cold spring morning, or that you’re kicking leaves on the way home from a first date with a really fit girl.
The patient, deliciously relaxed voice of Sarah Martin leads us into the record with ‘I Didn’t See It Coming’, a regretful song with an affectionate and forgiving chorus. Meanwhile, no less than Norah Jones pops up to guest on ‘Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John’. Although her appearance might see indie fans choking on their cravats, she’s ace: like a heartbreak-hardened country and western star.
Are we forgetting anyone? Of course we are: Stuart Murdoch is as fey and endearing as ever, not least on the rainy day nostalgia of ‘Calculating Bimbo’ and the yearningly troubled ‘I Want The World To Stop’.
Of course, there is the odd song that sounds like 1960s Bowie (such as ‘I’m Not Living In The Real World’), and the band still use way too much reverb – but I’ll leave it for you to decide if these are bad things. For the most part, ‘Write About Love’ is a fine, fine album, perfectly timed to wrap a blanket around October.