Belle & Sebastian - 'Write About Love' (Rough Trade) Released: 11/10/10

With a career spanning nearly 15 years, Belle and Sebastian remains one of Scotland’s most popular and most divisive musical exports. Whilst many find their musical output overtly twee and painfully contrived, many others hear poignantly well-crafted, expertly delivered songs. Driven mainly by Stuart Murdoch’s song-writing, ‘Write About Love’ once again finds the group primarily focusing on a combination of jangly guitar driven folk-pop and European chamber pop harking back to 60s and 70s.

It’s arguably the former of these two styles where the band comes across strongest. ‘I Didn’t See It Coming’ is a euphoric way to open the album and impossible to resist - a winding, dream-pop number that culminates in Murdoch gleefully-singing “make me dance, I want to surrender”. Similar highlights on the album include ‘I Want the World to Stop’ which is jammed with hooks and shot-through with drama and a sinister edge thanks to the excellent production and instrumentation. The title track and current single is also enjoyable radio-fodder, although lyrically it’s decidedly questionable in places: “I’ll ride upon a friend, he’s intellectual and he’s hot, but he understands.”

Unfortunately, the slower tracks have considerably less impact, and the album as a whole is somewhat of a trial to get through in its entirety. The peculiar cameo of Norah Jones on ‘Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John’ is actually one of the stronger down-tempo pieces on the album, Jones even managing to register what may be a hint of emotion in her voice. Alas, other songs fall considerably flatter. ‘Read the Blessed Pages’, feels a little forced and the cringe-inducing midi lead sounds like its lifted from a dreadful pan-pipe compilation CD. The following ‘I Can See Your Future’ is a jaunty pop number that just errs on the wrong-side of twee, the reoccurring horn lead quite painful to listen to although eventually the piece does reach a pleasant, even enchanting outro - but it’s hard work getting there.

 It’s been a long time since the last Belle and Sebastian album, over four years in fact, and you can’t help but feel that, given the amount of time taken, they owed the fans something a little grander. It’s by no means a poor album, but it’s unmistakeably under-whelming. ‘Write About Love’ is unlikely to satisfy ardent fans as it fails to attain the high bar set by the group with their previous two efforts – ‘The Life Pursuit’ and ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’. It’s a pleasant enough listen for the most part and a suitable backdrop to a lazy Sunday afternoon, but the seemingly intentional passiveness of it all its most likely its undoing.