Dear Catastrophe Waitress [Vinyl] Review
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Dear Catastrophe Waitress rightly restored Belle & Sebastian to their former glory following a few musical missteps. This was very fortunate, as it would have been a shame for their flame to have burned out when leader Stuart Murdoch still has this and 2006's The Life Pursuit somewhere inside of him. While the delicacy of the band's songs was a large part of what made the band so beloved, that well had started to run dry. Thankfully, producer Trevor Horn, who seems like a very unlikely choice, recognized that Belle & Sebastian could sound just as good if their songs were consistently bouncy and uptempo. The final product of this collaboration was an album that basked in retro every bit as much as its predessors, but with a more pronounced late 70s/early 80s feel.
"Step Into My Office, Baby" is a shimmering, pristine chunk of schmaltzy 70s pop, and a rather amusing tale of romance in the workplace. The title track stars one of the many types of characters with whom Belle & Sebastian have always sympathized. It also makes their longstanding Love influence more obvious than ever by borrowing the staccato string riffs from that band's "You Set the Scene".
These first two tracks find the band in firmly uptempo mode. However, "Piazza, New York Catcher" is Murdoch at his folky, meandering storytelling best. It also contains some of his best lyrics, and he sings through them breathlessly. "Asleep on a Sunbeam" features lovely female vocals, which are always welcome on a Belle & Sebastian album. Fortunately, they pop up again in the background of "Wrapped Up In Books", which is driven by a punchy beat reminiscent of The Cars' "Shake It Up". In a similar vein, "Stay Loose" is powered by the sort of robotic rhythm that defined new wave. This comes as less of a surprise when one recalls who produced the record. (The tune also starts off with an organ that makes it sound like it was the main influence for the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack.)
The album's upbeat mood is further punctuated by "I'm A Cuckoo" and "Roy Walker", two of the most joyous numbers in the band's entire catalog. (Although the former's lyric "I'd rather listen to Thin Lizzy-oh" is somewhat cringeworthy.) But for old time's sake, Murdoch offers "Lord Anthony", about a bullied know-it-all who would surely find kindred spirits on any other B&S album. The remaining tracks - "If She Wants Me", "You Don't Send Me", and "If You Find Yourself Caught In Love" - make up the album's weaker moments. However, they are certainly not enough to bring the overall quality down significantly.
Dear Catastrophe Waitress is the third Belle & Sebastian CD that I have reviewed, and the third to which I have awarded 4-1/3 stars. I am not sure why I am reluctant to give any of them 5 stars. After all, their music is great, nearly brilliant at times, and listening to their best albums certainly amounts to a 5-star experience. Maybe I feel like their songs lack profundity, and are perhaps a bit too whimsical at times. Whatever the case may be, Dear Catastrophe Waitress certainly deserves to rank among their very best efforts, and when it was released in 2003, it was surely their most dynamic to date.
For a band with such a modest, homespun feel as Scottish cult heroes Belle and Sebastian, the utilization of a big pop producer like Trevor Horn could easily have been a tragic mistake. Instead, it proves to be a stroke of brilliance. Rather than doling out the kind of overblown mountains of sound he's heaped on artists like Seal and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Horn simply expands the B&S palette in a completely organic, extremely effective manner. The arrangements are more fleshed-out than usual, the textures more varied, and the overall sound a bit more sprightly and sunny. All this is to the good, however, as the band's unerring melodic sensibility and gently quirky lyricism remain joyfully intact. The interaction of Belle and Sebastian's trademark twisted-twee songcraft and the effervescence of Horn's production makes DEAR CATASTROPHE WAITRESS one of the group's most instantly appealing albums.
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Fear part-apathy tunesmiths - IRate -
2 1/2
Thankfully they got over this little creative hump, but everything in DCW sounds like a band's swan song in its lack of fresh ideas and simple energy. What may sound to observers as their surface-beauty best sounds to me like one of their worst written albums, relying on dolled-up generic songwriting and pointless different direction more than ever to seemingly appease a fan base without much else in mind.
Some of their best lyrical work - S. Mackin - Catskill, NY
This is possibly my favorite B & S confection. The strings are especially good on this album and their lyrics are fantastic. A classic that will be loved by any B & S fan or that can serve as a fine introduction to their work.
Jul 17, 2010 17:25:04
