Photo by David Boni
Taking their name from a French television adaption of the novel, Belle et Sébastien, Belle and Sebastian formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996. Belle and Sebastian, a 7-person band, were formed primarily by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David. They blossomed into a invigorating compilation of indie pop, folk rock, and chamber pop that additionally captured sounds of dream pop and shoe gaze, all contributing to their achingly intimate songs.
Photo by Søren Solkær
Their debut album, Tigermilk, is ripe with upbeat melodies and tempered allusions to adolescence and what makes life, well, life. Their 2003 album, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, sets offers intense renditions of loneliness, isolation, sex, and friendships. Belle and Sebastian diversified their sound palate to include the gentle ease of soft guitar and the subdued voice of Stuart Murdoch, Isobel Campbell, or Sarah Martin in contrast with the dissimilarity of sharp and sudden shifts from instruments, 70s rock, and ambitious, quirky harmonies. They veer towards a whispered strain and a palpable introspection that encompasses their charm and cohesion. Their albums integrate unique and sobering realities, masked by extensive synchronicity and tough delicateness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDRbON3HkLU
While there is no denying the preciousness of this band, their full-bodied, splendid sound has been exposed to the influential forces and determinants of each time period. Murdoch uses his music to coincide with his life projects, movements, and moments and this music reveals what was on his mind and what he experienced through society. The five song EP How To Solve Our Human Problems (Part 1) is Belle and Sebastian’s newest release that reveals Murdoch’s mindset and recent revelations. The songs shift from their nostalgic folk-pop arrangements to sophisticated arrangements of wry, formal feelings; the music is self-reflective and endearing. In the first track, “Swee Dew Lee”, Murdoch sings, “I didn’t think after 20 years / I’d be right back in the self-same places.” These songs offer hope for vitality and youth as they cement the prominent image and sound of Belle and Sebastian, that fans grew glued to beginning in 1996.
“Sweet Dew Lee”, the first song, follows the pinning after a woman and inability to hold and grasp one’s desires: “In another dimension (another dimension)/Oh, in a parallel world (parallel world)/Oh, I was your man (I was your man)/ I had made you my girl.” Murdoch is singing of love, but also the unattainable desire of holding on to what you once had, and this case “Sweet Dew Lee”. When Murdoch relives the past in the second song, “We Were Beautiful”, he tells the tale of changing and living. It remembers and honors the idea of a clean slate: “We were beautiful before this went down/ We were beautiful before the years came/ And turned it upside down/ We were beautiful before we got wise.” Murdoch sings through the climactic chorus amidst the sharp, steady downshifts and electronic percussion. Sarah Martin beautifully captures the natural beat of life in the third song “Fickle Season”. She sings of the birds who know when it’s time to fly home and the constant cyclical pattern of lovers: “Time will bring you back to me/ Like the river runs to the sea/ Come the season, find a reason/ Home is anywhere you find me.” The fickle sentiment of love and desire holds a constant in one’s mind, even if it may be time to move on or after the initial love is lost. “The Girl Doesn’t Get It”, the fourth song, follows the idea of soulmate, “a myth that they’re selling”. Murdoch confirms his notions and perspective of inevitable and constant change. Everything, including people, change and life will just pass by, so “dance till your heart is joyful”. This song paints the picture of the ceaseless contrast between the world of darkness and how it is pushed upon us and the world of irrevocable happiness and the ability to live in the moment. The last song is “Everything Is Now”. It ends the EP in a smooth manner by serving primarily as an instrumental song. The lyrics consist of “Everything is now” and “Everything is different, now”, but towards the ending of the song they sing, in a subtle, preaching tone with help from the organ, “Everything is indifferent, now”. The inviting synthesis of the organ, stringed instruments, and wind instruments form a transparent, vibrant view of both sides of the coin.
The real question here is, what does the title, How To Solve Our Human Problems, reflect in regards to the complexity and substance of our problems?
The songs pave a path for transformation, pain, acceptance, and awareness. Awareness of being human and what comes with that. Belle and Sebastian pave a critically aware and glistening, yet poignant picture of what life is and how it has changed. Through the reiterated intricacy of love, desire, change, and life itself, Belle and Sebastian assert their thematic expressions of their own lives integrated into our own. The solution to it all is aberrant celebration and acceptance.
EMMA WEAVER | KXSU Music Reporter