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Belle & Sebastian - Storytelling Vinyl LP Soundtrack 2002

Belle & Sebastian - Storytelling Vinyl LP Soundtrack 2002

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£17.99
£17.99 - £17.99
£17.99
£13.99
£13.99 - £13.99
£13.99
Cat no. JPRLP14

Given Belle & Sebastian's eccentric way of doing things, it's hardly surprising their soundtrack to the Todd Solondz movie, Storytelling, did not work out quite as planned. Plenty of bands have written scores to imaginary movies. Belle & Sebastian, however, have composed an imaginary soundtrack to an existing movie; only six minutes of this music was actually used in the film, and plenty was completed after the film was released. The weird thing is, it all fits together rather nicely. Storytelling is a more consistent beast than the last couple of B&S albums, with no obvious moments of real shambling horror. Instead, the discipline of writing (vaguely) to order seems to have made the band perversely less uptight. So Stevie Jackson's ambling harmonica piece, "F*ck this Sh*t", is a close cousin of his beautiful work with the Bill Wells Trio--and also, explicitly, Dylan's soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

Amid the lilting instrumentals and snatches of dialogue from Solondz' fine movie, there are a clutch of quietly impressive songs. "Black and White Unite" continues Stuart Murdoch's artful reorganisation of the legacies of Love and Simon & Garfunkel, while on "I Don't Want To Play Football" he chooses to stereotype himself further as the sickly child always picked last at games. Best of all, there's "Storytelling" itself, in which Sarah Martin pursues the issues of authorial responsibility tackled by Solondz in the movie. "In directions, actions and words, cause and effect, you need consistency", she politely chastises, targeting Solondz as much as his characters. This is retribution, Belle & Sebastian style: truly, revenge has never been so sweet. --John Mulvey

Track Listings 1. Fiction 2. Freak 3. Dialogue: Conan, Early Letterman 4. F**k This Shit 5. Night Walk 6. Dialogue: Jersey's Where It's At 7. Black and White Unite 8. Consuelo 9. Dialogue: Toby 10. Storytelling 11. Dialogue: Class Rank 12. I Don't Want to Play Football 13. Consuelo Leaving 14. Wandering Alone 15. Dialogue: Mandingo Cliche 16. Scooby Driver 17. Fiction (Reprise) 18. Big John Shaft