The Boy With The Arab Strap

The Boy With The Arab Strap is the in car Cd of choice today, the third album by Belle and Sebastian.
I am getting a little CD fatigue at the moment, I have a hankering for NOFX on my commute but aware that in a short period I have time off for Leeds Festival and a holiday I am being quite strict and sticking to the CD’s, there isn’t anything wrong with Belle and Sebastian but I really could do with a little non B action.
The album is a good one, its perhaps from their golden period, a time when not only albums were great, but ep’s and all the tracks on those ep’s were just as stunning.
The only real downside of thias album is one track and that is the jazz tinged A Space Boy Dream, its relation is more akin to Bitches Brew than Five Leaves Left, for some that’s a good thing, for me that’s not the case.
Outside of that it is Belle and Sebastian by numbers and fulfilling an unwritten obligation to the fans to provide up beat indie. That up beat indie is evident in droves, from Dirty Dream Number Two to the title track, from Sleep the Clock Around to A Summer Wasting, all great steering wheel bongos stuff.
The tone is more broodier on other tracks, the magnificent Seymour Stein or the Isobel Campbell sung Is It wicked Not To Care, all of this makes it a more than enjoyable listen, but it isn’t NOFX. 8 out of 10.



The Boy With The Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian