Friday, February 06, 2004
Belle & Sebastian have just released their first DVD, Fans Only, and it's a winner. Not simply a mechanical compilation of videos, it's a feature-length film mixing in videos, interviews, footage of the band, and footage the band took. The introductions of the band members is especially good, and it's a delight to finally feel like I'm connecting faces to the music I've enjoyed for several years now. For the most part, their cover art hasn't featured them, and there's often no explanation in the liner notes to explain who performed or gets songwriting credit. So there's been a lot of extraordinary mystery about the band.
The first single off of Dear Catastrophe Waitess, Step Into My Office, Baby, is not my favorite cut on the album, but I can see why they released it: it's funny and unique. I'm very happy with the 2 non-album cuts, esp. "Love on the March" (a Stevie song?) which is the first instance (as far as I know) of Belle & Sebastian trying out clasic 60s bossa nova. Ugh, right? Mais, non! It's excellent, catchy and beautiful, with an interesting harmony (I esp. like the part near the end where Stuart joins in) that keeps it from being too familiar. Highly recommended.
