Belle & Sebastian are an indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. They are the definitive band to create many songs that can truly be described as ‘sweet’ ‘cute’ and ‘love’ songs, and they once again display this sound in this new LP.
The production on all of the tracks in Write About Love is fantastic. You can hear every layer upon layer of sound clearly, and also hear the vocals too. The sound is very clean and it is a nice change to hear such a clean production on an album released in 2010 as many of the others feature a lot of distortion or really take advantage of the latest “shoe gaze” phase.
This LP has got some very good moments within, with the majority of these moments are from the songs featuring the two special guest contributors. Norah Jones sings on “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John” to create an astounding combination of switching vocal duties and produces a very uplifting and simply wonderful song. The second contribution comes from aspiring actress Carey Mulligan who provides backing vocals on the LP’s title track “Write About Love” and produces a marvellous vocal harmonisation to create yet another hit song for Write About Love. These two songs truly stand out from the rest of the album and do give a break from listening to another standard Belle & Sebastian song ,for a few minutes at least.
To say that these two songs are the only saving grace on this album is just absurd. The song “Come On Sister” completely outshines the rest of the eleven songs on this LP, it is a song that really defines Belle & Sebastian’s “indie pop” genre with its astonishing vocal delivery upon the smile inducing keyboard and guitar, and it has produced such a magical piece of music. “Come On Sister” is one of the best songs I’ve heard this year.
One problem that I do have is that Belle & Sebastian have hardly made any progression in terms of their music and sound. Many of their more recent albums as well as Write About Love could easily be mistaken for a song on their earlier albums, as they just sound too similar to the rest of their back catalogue, which I really don’t understand at all considering they have been around for over ten years now. Many artists that have been around in that time period have progressed and their sound is vastly different, Queens of the Stone Age being a big example.
Overall:
Belle & Sebastian Write About Love is an album that needs to be heard, though whether or not to actually purchase it is a completely different argument. This LP has three complete stand out moments on it, with the rest being standard Belle & Sebastian songs. They are not all necessarily bad songs, they do achieve their purpose, the opener “I Didn’t See It Coming” builds the appetite and anticipation for more while the closing track “Sundays Pretty Icons” really captivates a fun and lovely sounding album. I will give Belle & Sebastian Write About Love a fairly solid rating of 6/10.
