Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsBelle and Sebastian Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant Matador Records See, I thought I had it all figured out. As everyone knows, Tigermilk is the best Belle and Sebastian album, followed by If You're Feeling Sinister and then The Boy With the Arab Strap. The pattern was clear: the longer the album title, the worse the Belle and Sebastian album. It was so clear and perfect that I placed all of my trust in it. Then I heard that the new album was going to be called Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, and my heart sank. The title was 45% longer than The Boy With the Arab Strap, which all fandom aside is a terrible album by Belle and Sebastian standards, despite a few nice songs. The "Legal Man" single didn't help much, either. Being the eternal optimist I am, I still preordered it and waited patiently as the US Postal Service took ten days to ship a package from Champaigne, IL to Schenectady, NY. As I had bought a few other things at the same time, I put this CD at the bottom of my stack of things to listen to, putting it off out of fear. When everything else was through, I pensively removed the shink wrap and put it into my stereo. My greatest fear was put to rest as Stuart Murdoch began singing "I Fought In A War": this is a Belle and Sebastian recording, as opposed to whatever the heck "Legal Man" was. It was very much a Belle and Sebastian album and I listened along happily until I got to "Beyond the Sunrise" which is an absolutely atrocious faux-country mess, but I'll put that aside since "Waiting For The Moon To Rise", which follows, is quite pleasant despite being another one of those not-quite-Belle-and-Sebastian songs, along the lines of a folkier Brittle Stars. It gets back to normal after that, with some of the more notable songs being "The Chalet Lines" which is quiet, pretty and meloncholy, "Women's Realm" which is extremely catchy, although it does sound a bit too similar to "Like Dylan in the Movies" off of If You're Feeling Sinister, and "Family Tree", a sprigtly, vivacious and somewhat biting song sung by Isobel Campell. Overall, Fold Your Hands... breaks with my theory by being far better than ...Arab Strap. It's far more cohesive, and sounds cleaner. Some of the string arrangements seem like a bit too much, but no cringingly so. It can't compete with the first two albums, but there are very few albums by any band that can, so that doesn't mean that it's not worth your attention. Total score: 383 out of 412 |