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BEST OF 2015

MAGNET’s #23 Album Of 2015: Belle And Sebastian’s “Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance”

BelleAndSebastian

There’s a devout sect of Belle And Sebastian devotees who still feel betrayed by the departure of founding members Stuart David and Isobel Campbell, who pine for the willful amateurism of, say, The Boy With The Arab Strap (coincidentally one of their weakest albums), and who were positively mortified by the relative professionalism of Dear Catastrophe Waitress (which was 12 fucking years ago). God only knows how they dealt with this then, B&S’ most unashamedly big, bold and brassy pop album yet. One can only imagine entire hordes of winsome bedsit romantics reduced to tears of apoplexy. And frankly, that’s their loss, as Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance is the band’s most consistent album in almost a decade. It’s the sound of a group rejuvenated, as intimate and heartfelt as ever, with all the old reference points intact (Velvets, Love, Nick Drake), but giddily embracing a kind of bastardized Euro-disco more often practiced by the likes of Saint Etienne and the Pet Shop Boys. And this, it should be pointed out, is a good thing. Vibrant and triumphant throughout, it’s a collective testament to frontman Stuart Murdoch’s unwavering faith in the redemptive powers of cheap pop music. —Neil Ferguson