God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl

, a soundtrack to a planned film/musical project from Belle & Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch, is a perky, catchy album of mostly new songs that is sure to make the interminable wait for a new B&S record seem a little bit shorter. These songs not only showcase the songwriting talent of Murdoch, but also the lilting vocals of relative newcomer Catherine Ireton, a friend of a friend of Stuart’s who has appeared on B&S sleeves in the past and features on most of the record’s 14 tracks. And even though Murdoch and other members of B&S appear on the record, it has the intentional sound and feel of a 60s-era girl group.

There is a loose story throughout the record, but without the film or musical (which are still in the planning stages) to support the narrative, that storyline remains elusive. Especially with the record kicking off with the familiar sounds of ‘Act Of The Apostle’, a slightly reworked and renamed version of the song from The Life Pursuit. Since fans are already well-acquainted with this track, it’s tough to hear it within the context of a new album, especially one that is supposedly a concept record. But taken on its own, ‘Apostle’ is given a new life here, with vocals provided by Ireton and a slightly slowed down and subdued arrangement that really captures the strolling on the street feel of the song’s subject. She fares much better on the album’s title track, where, despite Murdoch’s fingerprints being all over the arrangements and self-deprecating lyrics, Ireton is still able to make the song her own. But the Eve at the heart of the record’s narrative is in search of what she wants (like any girl, really), and must be a tad creeped out by Murdoch’s offer to wash and scrub her in ‘Pretty Eve In The Tub’, so she turns to darker offerings and tells him ‘You sad individual. I’m not the one for you, you’ll never do’ on the sublime duet ‘Hiding Neath My Umbrella’.

But just when the storyline is starting to take shape, Internet contest winner Brittany Stallings takes over the vocals on a cover of the B&S track ‘Funny Little Frog’, which is a bit of a head-scratcher. It’s a souled-out but ultimately listless version of the original, and where it fits in the narrative is anybody’s guess. But the record works better if you just let the songs take you where they can, and the simple, playful ‘If You Could Speak’ is a great example of this, just bouncing along innocuously, but getting you to tap your foot anyway. The album really hits its stride at the halfway point, with the stellar ‘Musician, Please Take Heed’, the grandest song on the album, featuring a building, soaring chorus that echoes the Supremes, and ‘Perfection As A Hipster’, a tongue-in-cheek gem that features vocals from the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon. Lush orchestration is featured throughout the album, conducted by Rick Wentworth, composer of the Withnail And I soundtrack, and nowhere is that more pronounced than on the album’s first single, the subtly gorgeous ‘Come Monday Night’. Asya from Smoosh provides vocals on the provocatively silly ‘I Just Want Your Jeans’, which again throws a curve ball into the narrative but remains wholly a Murdoch creation, as does the bouncy ‘I’ll Have To Dance With Cassie’, which wouldn’t be out of place on any B&S record. The album closes with the playful girl-choir singalong of ‘A Down And Dusky Blonde’, that features Eve residing in a tree contemplating consuming an apple, getting advice from her doctor to go ahead and eat it. And while the story line seems to evaporate into the ether at various points, the record remains a pleasant listen overall despite its lack of cohesion.

While God Help The Girl is certainly not billed as a Belle & Sebastian project, Stuart Murdoch’s impish fingerprints are all over this record. The familiar cheeky lyrics and building arrangements are there, as are Stevie, Bob and Richard from B&S, but this is a different animal altogether, as the swirling strings this time give way to female singers vocalizing the familiar struggles of love, growing up and getting older. There are hints of B&S found throughout the album, but only hints, and that can either be frustrating or encouraging to the listener, but either way it’s enjoyable and entertaining enough to tide us over until whenever the time comes for a new Belle & Sebastian album.