Didn't know whether I wanted to like this one or not. On the one hand, the songs that I'd heard from it hadn't been doing much for me despite plenty of plays in recent weeks; The Life Pursuit seemed likely to be another step in the direction indicated by Dear Catastrophe Waitress, and while that album has its moments - most particularly the "You Don't Send Me"/"Wrapped Up In Books"/"Lord Anthony" run that opens the second half, and closer "Stay Loose" - and eventually grew on me, it can't hold a candle to any of the early lps/eps, nor probably even the flawed but still rather wonderful Peasant. But on the other hand, it's Belle and Sebastian, damnit! It wasn't so long ago that they were almost my favourite band! And all that other stuff! In other words, j'étais déchiré.
Well, I didn't think that I'd be able to check my expectations at the door and listen to the album without the baggage of my previous exposure to B&S; in fact, however, about halfway through my second listen, I stopped hearing The Life Pursuit as 'the new and probably rather too glossy for my liking album by a band whose earlier stuff I loved at one point and still like a great deal, etc' and started to come to terms with it on its own ground, both as a latter-day Belle and Sebastian record and simply as a record of music that I was listening to.
Anyway, on that ground, The Life Pursuit is a decent enough album, but it really ain't all that great. Starts well with its best song, "Act of the Apostle", which seems to promise more of what both "Stay Loose", at the very end of DCW, and "Your Cover's Blown", on the subsequent Books ep, hinted at - interestingly off-kilter, tuneful, quasi-anthemic indie-funk - and then steps forward with its most successful Bright Sprightly Moment in "Another Sunny Day"...things are looking good at this point, even if it seems we need to reconcile ourselves to the melancholy days being over. But the rest of the album...well, it's not that it's bad exactly, but more that it's a wee bit undistinguished; the more upbeat, muscular direction they're taking isn't inherently bad, but I really feel that the band is so, so much better when that old sweet sadness makes itself felt. As things stand now, there's just nothing special about the music that Belle and Sebastian are making, more's the pity. Well, all things change...
