There is something so cherishable about the fact that seven albums in Belle and Sebastian have just made the best record of their career; something so Belle and Sebastian about it, in fact. Here is a band whose whole existence stands in accidental opposition to the conventional showbiz way of going about things. So, waiting until most people think they’ve got you pegged as fey cuties who will never make a better record than ‘Tigermilk’ / ’Boy With The Arab Strap’ / ’If You’re Feeling Sinister’ (delete according to prejudice) and to then cut the feet out from under everyone with a record of such startling clarity, accomplishment and oomph as ‘The Life Pursuit’, really is beyond gratifying; it’s nothing short of a revelation.

Decamped for the duration of recording to Los Angeles, Belle and Sebastian have found the focus to fully realise what the late John Peel correctly identified as their “surprising muscularity” at Glastonbury three years ago.
Of course, to those paying attention, it was always clear that in chief songwriter Stuart Murdoch we had a national treasure in waiting.
Perceptive, humane and hilarious, his writing has always had a voice as discernible as a Cocker or Morrissey, but perhaps the bushel obscuring it was a little more, uh, capacious. On ‘The Life Pursuit’ this individuality seems to have reached its apotheosis of heartbreak and humour.

Belle and Sebastian pull in stuff from all over the place, so that Sly & the Family Stone/Funkadelic inflections (‘Song For Sunshine’) sits side by side with the classic Bubblegum riffs and call-and-response vocals of ‘White Collar Boy’ (another sure-fire stomping single); the ‘Queen Bitch’-era Bowie stylings of ‘Sukie In the Graveyard’; the glammy T-Rex of ‘The Blues Are Still Blue’; the prime-time miserablism of a Terry Hall (Mornington Crescent) and the irrepressible rousing piano drive of ‘The Price Of A Cup Of Tea’.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. The Act Of The Apostle part 1
2. Another Sunny Day
3. White Collar Boy
4. The Blues Are Still Blue
5. Dress Up In You
6. Sukie In The Graveyard
7. We Are The Sleepyheads
8. Song For Sunshine
9. Funny Little Frog
10. To Be Myself Completely
11. Act Of the Apostle part 2
12. For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea
13. Mornington Crescent