No Need For Acting Clever

Belle & Sebastian “Song For Sunshine” – Belle & Sebastian have built their career on an uncanny knack for pastiche, slowly working through the 60s folk-rock canon and on through other familiar sounds of the 60s and 70s. Each new album from the band seems to be a small step forward along the pop timeline, and it’s beginning to seem likely that the band might record a few grunge numbers around 2018, at which point the sound will be suitably old-timey enough for the group’s sensibility. (There will also be a few baggy numbers on that album.) A majority of the forthcoming The Life Pursuit is spent in a nebulous late 70s mode, mainly fixating on the sort of light Thin Lizzy-ish glam that they started on with “I’m A Cuckoo” from the previous LP. “Song For Sunshine” is the most audacious track from the album, as it blatantly apes Parliament/Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder with very polarizing results. I think it’s the best song on the record, and among the most enjoyable selections in their discography. But other people are already blasting it with their Hatorade hoses, and the thing only leaked this week. So approach with caution, and keep in mind that it’s not exactly a proper representation of the album as a whole. (Click here for the official Belle & Sebastian website.)

Gus Gus “Bambi” – Poor “Bambi,” marooned on an album full of so-so late 90s trip hop, cut off from the rest of the world for being the one song that feels timeless on a record that already feels dated despite only being six years old. This is Gus Gus’ end-of-the-movie moment; a gorgeous vaseline-lensed love song complete with sci-fi romanticism and swelling strings. I reckon that it’s at least equal in quality to some similar songs recorded by Bjork around the same time. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)