Customer Reviews

Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like a Peasant

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

...Belle and Sebastian release another album telling us that music is alive and well. Belle and Sebastian have to be my favorite band of all time. They've made four albums and five EP's and not one has been a dud. The newest album, "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasent", is not as immediately accessible as the previous three, but just as good. This is perhaps their most bitter album to date. Leading man Stuart Murdoch sounds angry and tired on most tracks (ex. I Fought in a War, The Chalet Lines, Don't Leave the Light on Baby) and on the others he almost always sings with poppy cynicism in his voice. Sarah Martin, the bands violinist(?), contributes a fine track (Waiting for the Moon to Rise) as does Isobel Campbell (Family Tree.) The biggest surprise here, well second biggest (see below), is Stevie Jackson's The Wrong Girl. After Seymour Stein, I wanted never wanted to hear Stevie's name again, but this makes up for the all the pain he's caused. The actual biggest surprise is Beyond the Sunrise. There is only one word to describe this song, horrific. Why did they have to go and taint this album with that crap? Anyway, other than that song, this album is great and belongs on every Belle and Sebastian fan's shelf. Note: If you want to buy your first Belle and Sebastian album, but don't know which to get, buy If You're Feeling Sinister first. It's the best one.

Pet Sounds clones are a dime a dozen. Every month someone, somewhere, claims unearned kudos for the latest indie fad by comparing it with the Beach Boys' 1966 masterwork. In the case of Fold Your Hands Child, however, there really is no other precedent. On the evidence of their 3 earlier efforts, Belle & Sebastian seem incapable of writing a bad tune, but here they've transcended even those illustrious early works: 11 perfectly cut pop gems, as graceful and exacting as Brian Wilson used to produce.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with the album's predecessor, The Boy With the Arab Strap. One of those songs in particular points to the new direction, `Dirty Dream Number 2', the exquisite soul pastiche. Sarah Martin's violin works similar wonders here on `The Model', `Don't Leave the Light On Baby', `Women's Realm' and `There's Too Much Love', the sweetest string sounds imaginable, soaring and diving, wringing every nuance of heartbreak from the accompanying lyric. The same soulful vivacity infuses the rest of the album - call it, then, `Dirty Dream Numbers 3 to 13'.

`I Fought In a War' begins like an ancient folk hymn, then carries its elegiac tone into a contemporary pop setting. The harpsichord, another new feature, seems custom-built for the B&S musical blueprint. It adds extra fervour to `Waiting for the Moon to Rise' and propels `The Model', the latter a classic Stuart Murdoch tale of emotional confusion, using painting as a metaphor for a dysfunctional relationship. In stark contrast is the concentrated, hesitant `Beyond the Sunrise', which demonstrates how impeccably arranged the sound has become. Harking back to the Lee Hazlewood-Nancy Sinatra duets of the sixties, it features male and female vocal parts, choir-like backing, startlingly audible fretwork (you can hear the fingers working), church bells, and backwards guitar - all of it used sparingly, for embellishment. Understatement is the keyword in the Belle & Sebastian glossary. It's a relief to know that someone has finally got around to following up the Smiths' `Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'. The song, `Nice Day for a Sulk', hitches a jaunty, lilting rhythm to an ethereal and uplifting vocal melody. Even the soul turn itself takes a new turn, on `Don't Leave the Light On Baby'. The singer slips between cautious regret and bitter resignation, over a haunting and soulful keyboards-and-strings refrain (if you're feeling sinister). More pointed is `The Chalet Lines', a first-person retelling of a girl's rape, sung by Murdoch. Yet this apparently straightforward and spartan lament contains its own subtleties. Even as the sharp colloquialisms make the incident seem more harrowing, the sense of helplessness and despair cannot extinguish a spark of defiance.

The next single, `The Wrong Girl', telegraphs the essence of the B&S sound: a melody that you've heard a hundred times before, sounding like you're hearing it for the first time, every time. And then before it's barely begun, you're ensnared in that strange, magical, unfathomable mood they seem to conjure up at will. Such pristine pop purity is rarely achieved on a single, let alone a whole album.

Can a better one possibly come out this year?

Amongst B&S fans and critics alike, the debate over which album is the best could go on and on forever...probably long after the band finally calls it quits. When you've got in one corner the sunshine-soaked "The Boy With the Arab Strap," the solid, yet strangely menacing, "If You're Feeling Sinister" in another and this fantastic culmination of the "Belle and Sebastian sound" in yet another, it's hard to pinpoint one particular album as the best.

What certainly is a tough argument to make may be the most unnecessary. If there's anything that this band is truly good at is being consistent with their sound and their apparent motive for making music. The often-called "twee kids" and their baroque chamber-pop style has virtually been defined by B&S and you can hear it in its glory throughout their discography. They've been paving a new road with excellent LPs and EPs for us loyal fans to enjoy for years ahead. "Unique" is an understatement.

With that said, "Fold Your Hands, Child, You Walk Like a Peasant" only enforces the idea that when Belle and Sebastian are "in the zone," they don't let up. The wide variety found on this particular album (yet still maintaining the light, 60's-ish sound) is irresistible. "The Wrong Girl," for example, may be the most infectious B&S single to date. (Including the single-ridden "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" album!) Tracks like "The Chalet Lines" and "The Model" are classic B&S, yet sound fresh and new like an album truly should.

Though B&S have definitely carved a niche into popular music with their intelligent, yet vibrant and playful, sound, they continue to break ahead into all the nooks and crannies of their style to give us something wonderful to fall in love with...with each and every album. "Fold Your Hands..." is simply another strong (I say strongest!) example of how one band's initiative is too pure and precise to be broken.

Watching "The Wrong Girl" video on MTV2 was the first time I heard B&S. I was surprised by the fact that it was a new song that sounded like if it was made 30 years ago. I liked that song so much that I decided to buy the album right away. After listening all the songs of "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant" I realized that I bought the album of one of europe's greatest band.

They have a retro pop rock style mixed with lyrics that have a dark and modern atmosphere. "The Model", "The Chalet Lines", "Nice Day For A Sulk", and "Family Tree" are good examples of modern poems.


Most of the songs are sad specially "The Chalet Lines" and "I Fought In A War". It's amazing how sad rock music can be. The female voice is highly beautiful. The band have great musicians and composers. All the pianos, violins, guitars, and other instruments played on this album are perfect. After listening previous albums of B&S I consider this one the most elaborated.

I think it's a great CD to listen during winter time. It would be a perfect christmas present for anyone who loves sad music and rock and roll oldies.

Months ago I found out that the girls on the cover are members of a band called "Mum" from Iceland. They don't sound like B&S at all. They make electronic and experimental music that I highly recomend. As a matter of fact some members of B&S have a project called "Looper" which is similar to "Mum". Very interesting.

If you've never heard Belle & Sebastian and buy "Fold Your Hands Child," you might ask yourself what the fuss is all about. The decline in B&S quality that started with "Boy with the Arab Strap" goes into a free-fall here. It's still good music, but when you've been at the top of the mountain, baby, the fall can be a rough tumble. Simply put, this record is nowhere near the sheer beauty of the wittily crafted "If You're Feeling Sinister" and the best moments of "Arab Strap." The biggest problem, as I see it, is that the other members of B&S don't share Stuart Murdoch's gift of songwriting. The other members of B&S have their handprints all over this album, and their songs, though wistfully performed and sometimes pretty, just don't cut it in comparison to Murdoch's best stuff. "Sinister" seemed to be Murdoch's vision pushed through by a wonderfully sympathetic band, but this songwriting collaboration thing is hurting the quality of the music. Where are the hooks? The best one on this whole album ("Women's Realm") rips off "Dirty Dream Two" from "Arab Strap." The devastating, cruelly literate lyrics delivered with that wonderful Scottish wink? On the new album, the unfortunately titled "Nice Day for a Sulk" has lyrics that read like musings written on a napkin in a pub half an hour before recording them -- dull, inconsequential. The worst bile seems reserved for the band itself, resulting in sometimes embarrassing navel-gazing. A very disappointing album with only passable melodies and only one really excellent song -- "Don't Leave the Light On, Baby".

At this point in time, I've digested nearly all of B&S's full-length albums-Tigermilk,Sinister,Arab Strap, Fold Your Hands, Catastrophe Waitress, and Lazy Line Painter Jane. That being said, I tire of hearing how "inferior" this album is to the brilliance of the band's first three releases-all of which are excellent and worth buying, but hardly comparable to Fold Your Hands. The main strike against it is that is often called an "inconistent" album. In that regard, I will agree with other reviewers-inconsistent in sound maybe, but not in quality. Fold Your Hands continues to be B&S's most adventerous release, a grab bag of genres ranging from R&B and folk, to their signature chamber-twee sound. How then, can the band be accussed of inferior material with such an assortment of songs, none of which sounds contrived? The problem, then, might simply be the absence of "unhappy" tunes so often found on albums like Arab Strap and Sinister-a trend, I might add, that is evident as early on as TigerMilk, which is able to blend its melancholia and joy quite effortlessly. Indeed, songs like "There's Too Much Love" the excellent "Women's Realm" and "The Model" (with signature sinister lyrics hidden under the bouncy melody), might make you forget those unhappy tales of bullies,wasted youth, and disillusioned young girls reading J.D. Salinger. And really, why is that such a bad thing? Don't get me wrong, those tracks are quite wonderful (The State I Am In still remains one of the band's finest moments), but after awhile one needs a break from albums replete with nothing but tear-stained songs. That's not to say that the Fold Your Hands is completely devoid of them either. In fact the first line of the piano ballad "The Chalet Lines" should more than make up for their absence. Then there's the case of "democracy" on this album, which some feel brings down its overall quality. While I agree that Stuart Murdoch's tracks are really the best (as is the case with all of their albums) Isobel's delicate and wispy "Family Tree" and "Waiting for the Moon to Rise" and Stevie Jackson's folky "Beyond the Sunrise" and "The Wrong Girl" add a new flavor and sound to the band not heard before. Do yourself a favor, buy this album and ignore those purists who believe that Belle and Sebastian can only succeed as a bunch of morose hipsters sitting around reading Camus. But of course, don't let that dissuade you from buying said "morose" albums either. They're just as excellent.

With their fourth album Stuart and the Bellenders are covering familiar ground here. The challenge is, as always, how to move on as a group and yet not leave behind the fans who love your older stuff. Well, as we've seen before, the B&S back catalogue is a struggle; torn between their lo-fi roots and the big production now available to them they end up compromising their sound, trying to recreate the old days in a new environment. This album achieves that better than "The Boy with The Arab Strap" (for me the low point of their entire career), and begins to hint at the changes in store for the future.
FYHCYWLAP is possibly the bleakest album they've released, however it contains some of the best songs they've written. Album opener "I Fought In A War" and the chilling "Chalet Lines" show a real emotional depth that flies in the face of critics that try to peg them as lightweight or twee. "Chalet Lines", with it's tale of date rape at a holiday camp is very difficult to listen to - we're not accustomed to hearing songs with this much power in our power pop records, and the first person narration makes it infinitely more unsettling. The closest analogue I can think of in pop music is the Smiths track "Reel around the Fountain"...
By way of injecting some black comedy into the proceedings the band then follow up this masterpiece on the album with the throwaway, but still pretty, "Nice Day for a sulk", an intentional irony I'm sure, most notable for the attempt to rhyme "sulk" with "milk"...
On the whole it's definitely not the best B&S album ("Beyond the sunrise" alone guarantees that...), but it contains moments to rival any of the others ("The Model") and it should be part of any music fans library.

PS. The Penguin Paperback featured on the cover ("I fought in a War") is entirely fictional.

The first thing that needs to be said is that this record is beautifully (and, from the sounds of it, meticulously) arranged. This band grows with every release, although I'm sure not in the direction that many would enjoy most (this could be due to the recent re-release of 1996's "Tigermilk" and 1997's three EPs. Anyway, the record. Rigid Belle and Sebastian fans will wrestle a bit with it, but surrender inevitably to its profoundly understated charm. Non-fans, if not yet ready, will actively despise it. Latent fans that simply haven't heard them yet to be sent into a tizzy by their beauty will be sent into a tizzy by their beauty. I adore it, and I am not afraid.

This eagerly awaited fourth album from Scotlands Belle and Sebastian sees a slightly different slant on their music . This is the band who baffled the music public in Britain by beating" STEPS" to the 1999 Brit Awards for best newcomer , and although they have remained fairly reclusive and turned down a number of opportunities to appear both in public and on television , they are now becoming more media friendly which can only help in the promotion of this new album .

Musically the band stay with their successful , tried and tested formula and this album is just , well , superb . Although there are no great surprises , this is an album packed full of exquisite harmonies , tremendous musical arrangements and the kind of vocals we expect .

The balance between vocals and instruments is astounding . My favourite tracks are " Beyond The Sunrise " where the musical arrangement of acoustic guitar , barely audible violins , mixed with stunning vocals provides an excellent track . " Dont Leave The Light On Baby " is a different style of track which just sort of grows on you , and its not long before those softly sweeping chords in conjunction with hypnotic rythmic percussion have you convinced this is for you .

Belle and Sebastion have come a long way in a short time , deservedly so , this album will not dissappoint .

This is still a wonderful album, don't get me wrong. But I don't think it's possibly b&s weakest album to date. Perhaps it's that Stuart Murdoch lets the other band members have a bit too much say -- the lyrics to "Beyond The Sunrise," "Waiting For The Moon To Rise, " and "Nice Day For A Sulk" just don't manage the usual b&s wit or poignancy. Or perhaps it's due to the overreliance on keyboards and strings, which gives the album too much of a folky feel for my taste. (btw, how can anyone possibly claim that all the albums sound the same?) Nonetheless, this album has some beautiful gems: "Don't Leave The Light On, Baby," "I Fought in a War," and "The Chalet Lines" among them. This album is a most have for fans, but for an introduction to b&s, listen to Tigermilk for its simple beauty, to Sinister for its detached irony, and Arab Strap to hear an eight piece band actually rock.