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Rating:
When I read the various reviews that tore this album apart, even labeling it as the worst by Belle & Sebastian (justification: not spontaneous, less innocent compared to previous works, they changed their sound to reach a wider audience, not indie enough, too pop), I felt disappointed and offended. Actually, let's be honest: I was pissed. It's like when someone talks badly about a friend of yours, or worse, like when someone cynically lists the reasons why it's not worth falling in love with a particular girl.
Yes, because I secretly fell in love with “The Life Pursuit” and, as when at the beginning of a story (of love), I became literally addicted to it. Indeed, I've been listening to nothing else for quite some time (even though the CD was released just a few days ago. The magic of the internet...) and those few times I approached a new album (“Hellequin Song” by Cesare Basile, very beautiful by the way), I always felt the need to listen again to “The Life Pursuit” in its entirety. It relaxes me with its delicate atmospheres and excites me with its lively rhythms, amazes me with its crystal-clear arrangements and flawless execution, exalts me with its refined catchiness, and confuses me to the point that I can't do anything else other than listening to it, since I am now relaxed, excited, amazed, and exalted all at the same time. Practically a boiled fish in love. And jealous too: maybe because other people, who perhaps don't deserve it, are listening, have listened, and will listen to my album, maybe because I arrived late to Belle & Sebastian. Who knows? And so, I become jealous.
But the problem is another one. I can't get rid of these thirteen songs; they are so subtly invasive that I'll stop loving them only when they've definitively worn me out and they remain only a bad memory, like "how could I listen to that stuff?" Like in a love story. But I don't want that to happen. So what to do? I have developed such an obvious and dangerous dependency that alarms me and makes me opt for a drastic solution: forced abstinence. No use... “The Life Pursuit” fills my ears even in these moments, just as I'm writing this delirious post. And I already start to hate it. (Thankfully).
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Act of the Apostle (02:55)
Morning prayers took the girl unawares
She was late for class and she knew it
The broadcaster had a voice that was soothing
She couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman
A patch of sun fell onto her neck
She put her head on her arms on her desk
The lesson today was Acts of Apostles
The crazy hippies, they’re running scared
She shut her eyes and imagined the desert
No cars, no mobiles, just sun and bread
What would she look like standing by the well?
More like a women and less like a girl
“Oh, if I could make sense of it all!
I wish that I could sing
I’d stay in a melody
I would float along in my everlasting song
What would I do to believe?”
Later on she plays Morning Has Broken
She knows she’s bad
She is slowing everbody down
The choirmaster, usually a bastard, knows her mother’s sick
He’ll be nice to her
She thinks that she shouldn’t be there at all
Her worries make everything else seem trivial
“Oh, if I could make sense of it all!
I wish that I could sing
I’d stay in a melody
I would float along in my everlasting song
What would I do to believe?”
05 Dress Up in You (04:23)
I'm the singer, I'm the singer in the band
You're the loser, I won't dismiss you out of hand
Cos you've got a beautiful faith
It will take you places
You kept running
You've got money, you've got fame
Every morning I see your picture from the train
Now you're an actress!
So says your résumé
You're made of card
You couldn't act your way out of a paper bag
You got lucky, you ain't talking to me now
Little Miss Plucky
Pluck your eyebrows for the crowd
Get on the airplane
You give me stomach pain
I wish that you were here
We would have had a lot to talk about
We had a deal there
We nearly signed it with our blood…
An understanding
I thought that you would keep your word
I'm disappointed
I'm aggravated
It's a fault I have, I know
When things don't go my way I have to
Blow up in the face of my rivals
I swear and I rant, I make quite an arrival
The men are surprised by the language
They act so discreet, they are hypocrites so fuck them too!
I always loved you
You always had a lot of style
I'd hate to see you on the pile
Of ‘nearly-made-it' s
You've got the essence, dear
If I could have a second skin
I'd probably dress up in you
You're a star now, I am fixing people's nails
I'm knitting jumpers, I'm working after hours
I've got a boyfriend, I've got a feeling that he's seeing someone else
He always had a thing for you as well
Blow in the face of my rivals
I swear and I rant, I make quite an arrival
The men are surprised by the language
They act so discreet, they are hypocrites forget them
So fuck them too
06 Sukie in the Graveyard (03:00)
Sukie was a kid, she liked to hang out in the graveyard
She did brass rubbings, she learned you never had to press hard
When she was finished hanging out she was all alone
She decided that she better check in at home
There was an awful row between her mum and dad
They said she hadn’t done this, she hadn’t done that
If she wanted to remain inside the family home
She’d have to tow the line, she’d have to give it a go
It didn’t suit Sukie
She took her things and left
Sukie was a kid, she liked to hang out at the art school
She didn’t enroll, but she wiped the floor with all the arseholes
She took a bijou flat with the fraternity cat
She hid inside the attic of the sculpture building
She had a slut slave and his name was Dave
She said, "Be my photo bitch and I’ll make you rich"
He didn’t believe her but the boy revered her
He got her meals and he got her a bed
He watched behind the screen and she started to undress
He never got far
Just lookin’ and playing guitar
Autumn hanging down all the trees are draped like chandeliers
Now Sukie saw the beauty but she wasn’t wet behind the ears
She had an A1 body and a face to match
She didn’t have money, she didn’t have cash
With the winter coming on, and the attic cold
She had to press her nose on the refectory wall
They served steamed puddings, she went without
She had to pose for life for all the scholars of art
She didn’t feel funny, she didn’t feel bad
Peeling away everything she had
She had the grace of an eel, sleek and stark
As the shadows played tricks on the girl in the dark
Sukie was a kid, and she liked to hang out in the graveyard
Sukie was a kid, and she liked to hang out in the graveyard
Sukie was a kid, and she liked to hang out in the graveyard
Sukie was a kid, and she liked to hang out in the graveyard
07 We Are the Sleepyheads (03:33)
Tired like the beggar with the cold inside his bones
Looking for the pleasure that he knew was so far gone
So far gone
I took a turn to myself
And I was surprised, cause I saw everyone who ever I had loved
I felt a whole lot better after that
People look at us and they think were doing fine
People look at us cause they see us all the time
All the time
But they never take to us
We’ve been in this town so long we may as well be dead
So long as people turn their heads
And cross the street whenever we walk on by
Someone told the truth when it really mattered most
The beauty of the moment is the beauty sadly lost
Sadly lost
So I went around to your house
Over tea and gin we talked about the things we read
In Luke and John the things he said
And now it’s morning we are the sleepyheads
09 Funny Little Frog (03:08)
Honey lovin you is the greatest thing
I get to be myself and I get to sing
I get to play at being irresponsible
I come home late at night and I love your soul
I never forget you in my prayers
I never have a bad thing to report
You’re my picture on the wall
You’re my vision in the hall
You’re the one I’m talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don’t even know it
I am livin out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You’re the funny little frog in my throat
My eye sight’s fading, my hearing’s dim
I can’t get insured for the state I’m in
I’m a danger to myself I’ve been starting fights
At the party at the club on a Saturday night
But I don’t get disapproving from my girl
She gets the all highlights wrapped in pearls..
You’re my picture on the wall
You’re my vision in the hall
You’re the one I’m talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don’t even know it
I am livin out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You’re the funny little frog in my throat
I had a conversation with you at night
It’s a little one sided but that’s allright
I tell you in the kitchen about my day
You sit on the bed in the dark changing places
With the ghost that was there before you came
You’ve come to save my life again
I don’t dare to touch your hand
I don’t dare to think of you
In a physical way
And I don’t know how you smell
You are the cover of my magazine
You’re my fashion tip, a living museum
I’d pay to visit you on rainy Sundays
I’ll maybe tell you all about it someday
12 For the Price of a Cup of Tea (03:19)
For the price of a cup of tea
You’d get a line of coke
For the price of a night with me
You’d be the village joke
For the price of a pint of milk
I’ll tell you all I know
About the state of the world today
Sit down, enjoy the show
She had several hours to find a place to stay
Try the coffee shop, but somewhere on the way
She heard about a place, somewhere she could go
Walked a couple of blocks to her destination
For the price of a cup of tea
You’d get a seven inches
Soul black vinyl to stop your tears
You can use my stereo
You might be the village joke but
Don’t listen to the gossip of the other folk
She just wants to be accepted in this place
There’s something in her face
She will always seem exotic and aloof
If you want to know the truth
Her friend the stars dripping from the jewelled sky
When she was passing by
Would keep her calm
There was people that she knew, at least she thought she did
Be easy on the kid!
She took her winter coat from her plastic wrapper
Pushed back her fringe, see her birthmark
She can finally be the person she wanted to be
13 Mornington Crescent (05:40)
Mornington Crescent
I think of you
Rain in the southeast
Men feeling blue
Men with their bowlers
Kids with their spats
Ladies with chauffeurs
Dogs wearing hats and jackets
Rich apartments
Old punk posters
Tartan garments
I love the exquisite array
I love the camp as camp parade
The possibilities suggest themselves to me
I’m feeling free
Mornington Crescent
The sun in the east
I’ve got a job on
For a Senegalese rich arbitrator
In African law
To paint his apartment, strip down the walls
Came down between us lately
Lust and want and need just caved in
‘Is it wise?’
The answer’s no
It never is but since you ask
We pause thoughtfully, for twenty seconds reprieve
Then it’s off with the briefs
Mornington Crescent
Sin is my game
We’ll all be lined up
Irrelevant fame
Next to the broker, the nurse and the drunk
I was a joker, the wannabe punk that got lucky
Had a good time
Life became fruitless
Egotistic swine to all your friends
All the ladies and the men
The possibilities suggest themselves to me
We’re a little too free
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Other reviews
By Francis1
Never have I heard a more schizophrenic sequence of highs and lows on an album: tracks you could listen to for a lifetime interspersed with others you continuously skip.
It will probably be the Belle & Sebastian album that sells the most, but, for once, I’m not so sure that virtue lies in the middle.
By Almotasim
After so much emotional fragility, we can only agree to this mild provocation by Murdoch and associates.
"Though we say goodbye and wonder / What’s to know and who’s to blame / But to be myself completely I will love you just the same."
