Customer Reviews

3-6-9 Seconds of Light

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just want to say, that anyone who likes Belle and Sebastian should certainly add this to their collection. Really, you should buy this in the Lazy Line Painter box set. Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie is my all time fav B&S song (although my fiancé won't listen to it because he thinks the word "bourgeoisie" is pretentious). I consider it my personal theme song; you can take that for what it's worth. The rest of the songs are pretty good too.

I never rate 5 stars. Never. This EP is perfection. It encompasses everything the band was, is and should be in just 4 tunes. Beautiful, melodic, emotional and slightly popish - You will never stop loving it.

Belle and Sebastian have come a long ways from their early days as a group of shambling amateur musicians from Glasgow. It certainly is nice to go back to their earlier releases and remember how brilliant that shambling innocence really was though. For all the produced pop perfection of the Life Pursuit and DCW, those records will never hold a candle to the casual perfection of their early albums and EPs. Out of all the fantastic collections of songs the band released between 1995-98, 3..6..9 Seconds of Light stands a bit taller than the rest. Its five tracks (yes five, including the short hidden track)truly do stand the test of time. It starts off strong with "A Century of Fakers" and gets better from there with the surprisingly rocking "Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie." That masterpiece is followed by pure pop perfection in the trumpet laced "Beautiful", which really does live up to its title. The best, however, is saved for last with "Put the Book Back on the Shelf", which rivals the best work on If You're Feeling Sinister and Tigermilk. That songs fades into the brief "Songs for Children" which provides a nice ending for this mini-album. I would highly recommend it as a starting place for any newcomers out their, as for any fans that may not have already heard this, well, you know what you are missing!

One of few (especially indie) bands even non-fans can blindly invest into short-lengths as potential starting points, often yielding better results. These brief excursions tend to have all the energy, tight songwriting, and small-risk taking quite a few of there LP's cannot sustain throughout.

Gorgeous and brilliant, this encapsulates everything I love about them. Lots of territory covered here- 'A century of fakers' is lilting, melancholy, hypnotic, 'Le Pastie....' flat out ROCKS, and the little jam section over the main chord progression at the end fills my heart with joy. 'Beautiful' says it all and has clever lyrics, 'Put the book back on the shelf' with its instrumental break and delicate melody is a complex parting shot. Delightful melodies, smart lyrics, and each song trys out a variation on a theme. Its worth noting that B&S really are so much more than whimsical, twee, throwaway indie fare: Murdoch's lyrics are often tinged with spite, regret and genuine cynical wit, while his compositions are disarmingly intricate but so, so accessible. Plus they're from Glasgow!

If you want to start with an album, get 'If You're feeling Sinister', but the 3 summer EPs (this item, 'Dog on Wheels' and Lazy Line Painter Jane') really showcase everything this band can do, which is actually an awful lot,plus they do everything very WELL.

If you haven't listened to Belle & Sebastian before, well you should. A good idea would be to buy a used (or new, it's about the same price I suppose) copy of this EP. '3..6..9 Seconds of Light.' In under twenty minutes, it's easy to grasp how nice the band sounds together. It takes a lot longer to hear how every part, every instrument, fits in together, creating these four beautiful songs. For a quick listen, grab this cd. It's worth it.

"3...6...9..." is a brilliant display of B&S's pop essence: raw piano, soft strings, twangy electric guitars, horns and vocal melodic lines complemented by clever lyrics to make you swoon. Seldom are recordings that sound so genuine and polished, which mostly comes from musicianship as opposed to in-studio tweaking. I bought it as part of the three-EP boxed set which is indubitably essential to anyone's B&S collection. Although I may be biased in reviewing this album (being a B&S devotee), but this EP includes some of Stuart Murdoch's best tunes.