2008 Woodie Awards
'If You're Feeling Sinister'
cbell@gsc.edu
Chris Bell
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: Entertainment
Perhaps no band has suffered from the tendency of the music press to label unique practitioners of music like the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian as anything but pop. Such labeling was a virtual epidemic in the nineties. The buying publics' embrace of less traditional radio friendly music led to the dubious "alternative" label - (alternative to what?), which spiraled into even more vague tags. Therefore, Belle and Sebastian became kings of "twee" or, even worse, "precious" pop.
A careful examination of the band's 1997 "If You're Feeling Sinister" reveals a textbook pop band. While Stuart Murdoch, who composed all the music and lyrics on the album, has a knack for tender melodies and sings with a gentle croon. Most of the songs are classic pop verse-chorus-verse standards, replete with vocal harmony. Murdoch says in "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying", "nobody writes them like they used to, so it may as well be me."
Where Murdoch truly shines, however, it is his surprising irony imbedded in the lyrics, not a staple of pop music and an indication of why the band has never risen above its substantial cult status. This irony is mostly musical, meaning that the tender, mostly upbeat melodies belie a series of songs that comment on the spoils of athletes, the betrayal of the sixties generation to troubled youth, suicide, depression and guilt. Murdoch offers one of the few sympathetic portrayals of the demimonde, whereas most who assay this culture do so from a circus attendant's point of view.
Ten years later, Belle and Sebastian is going strong. The band is more electric now, more polished and less interesting. However, while much of the nineties music we of the grunge generation embraced so enthusiastically has become mostly worn out and revealed to be more commercial than at first recognized, "If You're Feeling Sinister" still offers a surprising set of sharp teeth.
A careful examination of the band's 1997 "If You're Feeling Sinister" reveals a textbook pop band. While Stuart Murdoch, who composed all the music and lyrics on the album, has a knack for tender melodies and sings with a gentle croon. Most of the songs are classic pop verse-chorus-verse standards, replete with vocal harmony. Murdoch says in "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying", "nobody writes them like they used to, so it may as well be me."
Where Murdoch truly shines, however, it is his surprising irony imbedded in the lyrics, not a staple of pop music and an indication of why the band has never risen above its substantial cult status. This irony is mostly musical, meaning that the tender, mostly upbeat melodies belie a series of songs that comment on the spoils of athletes, the betrayal of the sixties generation to troubled youth, suicide, depression and guilt. Murdoch offers one of the few sympathetic portrayals of the demimonde, whereas most who assay this culture do so from a circus attendant's point of view.
Ten years later, Belle and Sebastian is going strong. The band is more electric now, more polished and less interesting. However, while much of the nineties music we of the grunge generation embraced so enthusiastically has become mostly worn out and revealed to be more commercial than at first recognized, "If You're Feeling Sinister" still offers a surprising set of sharp teeth.
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