The sunny side of Scottish rock

Prior to Belle & Sebastian's 2003 album Dear Catastrophe Waitress, the band's career appeared to be fizzling out. Dealing with the departure of two original members, Stuart David and Isobel Campbell, as well as critical sentiment that the band from Scotland had pigeonholed itself in an increasingly banal sound, Belle & Sebastian decided to hit the reset button.\nWith the aide of producer Trevor Horn, the band reinvented their sound while staying true to their music's best qualities -- soft '60s-style pop and whimsical, yet unsettlingly frank lyrics. A major U.S. tour directly followed the release of Dear Catastrophe Waitress, giving the band an enormous surge in worldwide popularity. A poll in a January 2005 issue of the Scottish publication The List even positioned them as the country's greatest band of all time; they beat out perennial favorites Simple Minds, Franz Ferdinand and Idlewild. \nBelle & Sebastian worked on their fifth album, The Life Pursuit with a lot of momentum, and they have obviously managed to keep it going. As it did in Waitress, the band tends to steer clear of the ultra-mellow twee pop sound that defined early works like If You're Feeling Sinister. Pursuit features a diverse array of styles from song to song, and frontman Stuart Murdoch's superb ability to weave chamber pop into each composition will most likely result in a number of hit singles (something unheard of before 2003).\nJust as If You're Feeling Sinister defined the band's early twee pop sound, The Life Pursuit defines its departure from the sound. Much of the album is composed of fun, playful harmonies that truly showcase Murdoch's ability to write an upbeat arrangement for the seven-piece band. "White Collar Boy" is highlighted by a heavily distorted base line and an even dirtier hard rock guitar. It gives a strong impression of Britpop, not unlike a Supergrass tune. This should come as no surprise since the producer of this album, Tony Hoffer, also produced Supergrass' Life on Other Planets. \nThe album's first single to be released, "Funny Little Frog," includes all the usual Belle & Sebastian ingredients: trumpet/keyboard-driven melody, jangling guitar and Murdoch's endearing lyrics which meander in and out of rhyming sequence with the utmost subtlety. This song features lyrics like, "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," which can simultaneously come off as both sweet and heart-rending. \nBelle & Sebastian appear dedicated to their recently-acquired sunny sound. For a band that once used a picture of a girl who wasn't even in the band as its publicity photo, the band seems to be growing quite comfortable in its fame. Its success can't be expected to slow down any time soon, either. Murdoch's songwriting is growing richer now with each release, and his ability to shift gears as an artist make the band's music nothing short of transcendent.