The Boy with the Arab Strap
Belle and Sebastian follow up the considerable promise of 1997's fantastic
If You're Feeling Sinister with an album that is, unbelievably, even better.
The Boy with the Arab Strap is an immediately infectious and delicious pastiche of fey, Nick Drake-ian vocals; lilting pop melodies; shimmery arrangements; croony wonder; and tortured, lit-smart lyrics. Belle and Sebastian are smarter than the Smiths, wittier than the Beach Boys, more fun than the Velvet Underground, and even more inscrutable than R.E.M. That's heavy company, but
The Boy with the Arab Strap proves they deserve to be belles of the ball.
--Tod Nelson
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