bennieZes wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2019 2:07 pm
I read that they are to record an album with the producer who is
responsible for T.a.t.u.s "all the things she said" and Frankie goes to Hollywood.
should be... interesting?
A thorough Google search throws up nothing regarding this idea, nor is it mentioned to those on their email list, or on fan sites, and so forth. Is this up-to-date information, or old news about the album referenced below...which has already been recorded?
Belle & Sebastian made an "interesting" album with Trevor Horn, called
Dear Catastrophe Waitress - released in 2003 to significant critical acclaim, alongside a better commercial reception compared with their previous 2000 album
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant (I'm not counting their 2002
Storytelling soundtrack here).
Dear Catastrophe Waitress was not just an "interesting" album, it was a triumphant return to form. Without retreading old ground, the band retained Stuart Murdoch's key influences ranging from Love's
Forever Changes to The Smiths - this time incorporating Trevor Horn's signature production techniques, to great effect across the entire album.
For example, the title track is a perfect, modern and epic baroque pop classic. Both the lyrics and musical composition elements should be familiar to fans of Stuart Murdoch's writing style.
Trevor Horn lavishly complemented this in the studio, using his well known production techniques - for example creating epic, Spector-esque arrangements via huge, complex and lush orchestral parts.
Most notable are the prominent string and horn section recordings, scored by (now ex-) trumpet player Mick Cooke, beautifully influenced by David Angel's arrangements which so perfectly scored Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean's timeless 1967 compositions.
Trevor Horn creates both a classic early solo Scott Walker type of huge soundscape, combined with even more epic-sounding, modern widescreen-style string flourishes, alongside enormous and cinematic horns - Horn's production taking advantage of both the full frequency spectrum plus dramatic dynamic range, for a huge, recognisable signature sound, balanced with nuanced effect to inform the consistently "indie" pop sensibilities of Belle & Sebastian.
Fortunately the album showed a wide range of Belle & Sebastian's songwriting talent, complimented in various ways by the well known production stylings of Trevor Horn.
From the enormous sonics of the title track, to the pared-back simple solo acoustic guitar and vox fragility of
Piazza, New York Catcher - Stuart Murdoch et al continued to demonstrate their unfailing abilities on
Dear Catastrophe Waitress, in writing and recording timeless classic tracks, whose broad appeal never detracts from their weighty substance.
If the band are about to record *another* album with Trevor Horn, I'm confident they'll continue progressing the inimitable Belle & Sebastian musical canon in new directions, potentially well described by another key influence on Stuart's writing...
For his anthemic farewell to the end of a notable decade that impacted music more than any preceding it, on his Simon & Garfunkel swansong
The Boxer Paul Simon sang:
Nor is it strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same
