Canon in Miniature #189

Belle and Sebastian Books

2004; Rough Trade

Speaking as the only person ever who was even more put off by Dear Catastrophe Waitress than I was by the two albums that preceded it – short version: too fucking twee for its own good – I can’t say that I was exactly looking forward to hearing the band continue in that vein. I think I put off hearing Books for a good few years because I was so terribly let down by the album that came before it, this despite a whole score of people singing its praises as a significant change-up with respect to DCW. I was that stubbornly set against B&S at that point that I was deaf to any praise their current wave of material was receiving because it was obvious that I would not like it at all. So a good 3-4 years after its release I came across “Your Cover’s Blown” somehow, I can’t recall the specifics of how it came to pass but it happened, and was pleasantly surprised by it. No, pleasantly surprised doesn’t do justice to my reaction to it; I was basically doing metal cartwheels of joy as the song unfolded. Not only was it a completely different type of song as compared to DCW’s material, it was a total departure from any Belle and Sebastian song I‘d heard at that point. It was danceable! It was legitimately funky! It was snide! It sounded like Stuart Murdoch was paying homage to both 10cc’s multifaceted art pop and Jarvis Cocker’s smutty satire simultaneously! I was ecstatic that a band I had truly adored at some point was backing away from the cliff they’d pointed themselves towards with their supposed comeback album and working their way back into my good graces. I felt stupid for ignoring it for so long and figured that the band had finally gotten out of their slump, just one release later than literally everyone else claimed they had. Of course one listen to The Life Pursuit disabused me of that notion right quickly, but that’s another rant for another time.

That’s not to say that Books is a great EP as a whole. It’s a damn sight better than Dear Catastrophe Waitress – and the inclusion of that album’s “Wrapped Up in Books” is a “nice” reminder of that contrast – but it basically all exists in the long shadow of its opening track and its reprise at EP’s end. “Your Cover’s Blown” is the last fantastic B&S joint for me, and as good as it is it can’t carry the rest of the material here too far. A lot of that stems from the fact that it’s the only song on here that’s remotely interested in pushing the band outside of its comfort zone. A whole EP that took the influences on display there and worked them into new songs may not be a guaranteed recipe for success, but having the EP bookended with that sort of material and having said bookends easily dwarf the material lat the EP’s center doesn’t exactly work too well either. I mean, “Wrapped Up in Books” was one of the more tolerable moments on DCW, and it sounds even better removed from its initial context even if it’s still a bit boring and staid, but placing it right after the highlight of B&S’ 00s output just serves to make it feel so minor and inconsequential despite being perfectly tolerable on its own. The same goes for “Your Secrets,” another typical Belle and Sebastian number musically but one severely lacking in the wit that Murdoch generally displayed lyrically in their best moments. Ending the EP with a nice, mostly instrumental reprise of “Your Cover’s Blown” seems to try to tie the whole thing together as a mini suite, but outside of a few lyrical markers the material in the middle is so far removed from its bookends that the gambit feels a bit empty even as I’m glad to hear more stuff in the vein of the opener.

So yeah, while the awe-inspiring grandeur of “Your Cover’s Blown” is a nice reminder of what Belle and Sebastian can still do when they put a bit of effort into things, the rest of the EP doesn’t come close to matching it and makes the whole package feel a bit unnecessary. That said, “Your Cover’s Blown” is so good that I’d be foolhardy to not recommend this to anyone who enjoys cheeky, funky pop of any kind. It’s good enough to bolster the rating here but only to a point, I mean can’t go around claiming this is a great EP when it’s really one fucking great song, its reprise and a couple of nice but inessential numbers. [7.3]