Chat Review: Belle & Sebastian - Write About Love
By You Can't Hear it on the Radio
December 7, 2010
Steve: Like I said though there are individual highlights for me. Sometimes it's just a snippet within a song, unfortunately. I think the second half of the album, starting with the title track, is decent. The song "Write About Love" is probably my individual favorite, and I mostly like Stevie Jackson's song "I'm Not Living in the Real World". That song and several others feel like they're 80% of the way there.
Noah: Before we get into disagreeing about the song "Write About Love", can we at least ban breathy duets from Norah Jones for a few years?
Noah: In fact, I don't even want there to be a duet with Ravi Shankar any time soon. That's how sick of Norah Jones I am.
Steve: I'm picturing Stuart Murdoch listening to the finished product and saying "Norah Jones was a baaad choice", like he's channeling Anchorman after some milk and a long jog. Among the many things wrong with it, the song sounds like a Norah Jones song featuring Stuart Murdoch, not the other way around, and it glaringly stands apart from the rest of the album.
As I said to you the other day when we were discussing Album Killers, this song would be the poster child for such a concept if Write About Love were actually a good album to begin with.
Noah: I hate it. So much. Back to specific songs, though. You and I seem to like opposite parts of the album. You mentioned "Write About Love" and "I'm Not Living in the Real World". I have to say I hate both of those songs. The two songs I really like are "Come On Sister" and "I Want the World to Stop".
Steve: Both of those songs are decent, but pretty straightforward and kind of filler tracks for me. I at least admire what they were going for on "I'm Not Living in the Real World" even if they didn't get all the way there. I feel like "Come On Sister" turned out about as good as it was ever going to be - an okay song.
Big misses for me besides the Norah Jones song were "Calculating Bimbo", a ballad I didn't care for at all, and the lead track "I Didn't See It Coming" which was done no favors by Sarah Martin's vocals and some weak lyrical moments - "We don't have the money// Money makes wheels of the world go round// Forget about it honey// trouble's never far away when you're around". What does that even mean?
Noah: Agreed on all counts. I'm damning most of these songs with faint praise anyway. None of them would make a "Best of Belle & Sebastian" album if I had any say.
Steve: I guess that's what it comes down to for me - Belle & Sebastian have been unusually consistent, writing songs at a very high level throughout their entire recording career. They've put out a mediocre record, and relative to their track record it seems worse than it actually is. That's not enough to recommend it though.
Steve: Incidentally, their concert performance was equally uninspired. Something seemed amiss. Maybe it was early in the tour and they hadn't found their groove yet, but it was a bland, going through the motions affair.
Noah: I wonder if that's partially the material. I saw them on their last tour and they were terrifically engaging. So where do you put this album on our Great, Really Good, Good, So So, or Poor scale?
Steve: I give it a So So. It doesn't actively put me off, with the exception of the Norah Jones song, but I wish it were better and they are capable of better.
Noah: I'm sad to say it, but I have to give it a Poor. I'm just incredibly disappointed. It's an album I almost certainly will never come back to.
Steve: Yeah, when I'm in the mood for Belle & Sebastian I will likely go to just about any of their other albums ahead of this one.
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