God Help The Girl [Vinyl]

God Help the Girl | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (June 23, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Matador Records
• ASIN: B002736YMQ
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,164 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Act Of The Apostle

2. God Help The Girl

3. Pretty Eye In The Tub

4. A Unified Theory

5. Hiding Neath My Umbrella

6. Funny Little Frog

7. If You Could Speak

8. Musician, Please Take Heed

9. Perfection As A Hipster

10. Come Monday Night

11. The Music Room Window

12. I Want Your Jeans

13. I'll Have To Dance With Cassie

14. A Down And Dusky Blonde

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Spanning glam, soul, country, and 70s AM rock...Murdoch is at his best detailing his famously quirky characters" --Pitchfork

Product Description

After the success of the most recent Belle And Sebastian album, "The Life Pursuit", band leader/singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch decided to pursue his dream of writing a rock musical scored for female singers. After auditioning vocalists via Internet contests, he made his choices and, with all members of Belle And Sebastian backing him up, recorded this breathtaking record. It combines the strengths and feel of early Belle And Sebastian records in a broader musical palette, which draws equally on musicals, 60s girl groups, 80s indie, and most of all, classic pop.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely production fulfills Murdoch's potential, June 26, 2009

By 

WPH - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Help The Girl (Audio CD)

This album is an absolute masterpiece of postmodern honesty - equal parts hope and despair, to spectacular result. The album has the same thrilling qualities many people might attribute to some of the best work of the Smiths or others who combine a healthy touch of 60s-70s baroque with silky smooth singing and dead clever lyrics. Some of Stuart Murdoch's most achingly sweet productions and melodies come to life here with the dreamily perfect smorgasbord of expertly executed female vocals and impressive musicianship as well. This is a film soundtrack that does not need a film. God, I wish I could see that film! Beautiful craftsmanship like this is sadly uncommon in modern popular music. This will be a delightful and simply fun classic for years to come.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a quick overview, June 27, 2009

By 

R. Demerjian - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God Help The Girl (Audio CD)

To start, I agree with what the other reviewer has said. As I am only the second person to review this album, I thought I'd give some basic info potential fans may be wondering about...
1. If I am a Belle and Sebastian fan, will I find traces of their music in this and like it as a result? YES, many traces indeed, from Stuart Murdoch's actual singing to his clever lyrics to his lyrical phrasing to some very intelligent and proper British songwriting (Pretty Eve in the Tub is reminiscent of I Love My Car in it's cleverness). Some nice harmonies too from the group of female vocalists assembled.
2. Are the B & S songs on this album basically xeroxes of the original versions found of the Life Pursuit? NO. Acts of the Apostles is considerably different and Funny Little Frog is a slower, more soulful 70's version with lots of strings. Well worth the addition of them on this disc- not just filler.
3. Are there any throwaway tracks like on B & S's other peripheral project "Storytelling?" Sort of- there is a jazzy instrumental but it is only 1 minute long and it's actually kind of catchy in a pseudo Brubeck Time Out sense (nowhere near the level of that of course). Considering the amount of tracks on this disc, 1 quick filler song isn't bad.
Overall, this album contains extremely fun and smart British songwriting that made albums like XTC's Skylarking and Shelleyan Orphan's Century Flower so enjoyable in their time. It is not mired down in the self pity and pseudo despair that Smith lyrics are often consumed with so enough of the Smiths comparisons please! Lastly, there are some very strong female vocals on this album, most notably from a woman named Catherine Ireton who takes most leads and does a beautiful job with them. Not your typical B & S female vocalist- her voice is a pleasantly surprising soulful one. Well worth the money and a follow up.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The girl doesn't need much help after all, January 19, 2012

By 

Abyssalmang - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Help The Girl (Audio CD)

If you have have ever heard an album or two of Belle and Sebastian, you know they have a general but distinct style. Yes they experiment on every song and they sound different in that way, but there is still a "Belle and Sebness" to each one. Although Stuart Murdoch is the only member of the band to take part in this, I still feel that Style all throughout this, so much so that I cant really consider this a side project so much as them adding an extremely strong and gifted female vocalist to the Belle and Sebastian ensemble.

Vocally this album is excellent, I don't know where Stuart found Catherine Ireton, but it was a match made in heaven. She has such vocal power and range its hard to feel anything but awe of her in some of these songs. In "Musician Please Take Heed" for instance, she just sounds amazing, extreme range and clear sounding. The women that do backup vocals on this album and who have some of their own songs, are pretty excellent as well. I know other people say comparing this to Belle and Seb. is its downfall, but honestly I think the vocals on this are much stronger all around.

Lyrically this is a lot like Belle and Seb. albums, a lot of stories and mentioning of other songs. It is somewhat different from those other albums, in that I think a lot of these songs go for the throat more in regards to immediate catchiness. These songs seemed more streamlined and polished in every way compared to Belle and Seb. songs.

Instrumentally, this is a lot like a Belle and Sebastian album, except the experimentation and genre exploring comes more from earlier decades than most Belle and Sebastian Albums. This seems to explore the forties, fifties and sixties more. I really love the direction this album takes in that way and I see a lot of twee bands doing the same thing right now. The Like, The School, etc, a lot of twee bands seem to be going for the fifties/sixties pop thing right now. So I think Stuart Murdoch has to be given more than a little credit for anticipating that general genre change.

I just really liked the overall sound of this album. It didn't change a ton from Belle and Seb. stuff, but where it did, I felt like it was an improvement. I would highly recommend.