Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant

Entertainment Weekly - "...Lavishly produced, the disc trades melodic inventiveness for orchestral bells and whistles...[yet] there are plenty of sublime moments..." - Rating: B Rolling Stone - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Precious....proving nobody out there minces as well as this band....embellishing on the coyly lavish arrangements of '98s THE BOY WITH THE ARAB STRAP without forgetting to flex real heart muscles....Nick Drake would have loved this band." NME - Ranked #26 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". Magnet - "...It glides along with humid grace....trading confusion for confidence....wonderful, sweeping songs." Mojo - "...A set which finds B&S more '60s-obsessed than ever. Given time, fans will warm to PEASANT..." CMJ - "...[They] quietly ease into adulthood with both soul and restraint, trading in wistful teenage nostalgia for a progressively refined...sense of longing and sadness..." NME - 8 out of 10 - "...A superb record. Quintessentially Belle & Sebastian. Frustrating. Contrary. Insubstantial. Yet...still peerless, still irresistible." Melody Maker - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...The band that's too twee to be twue have released the same album you've heard and loved/hatedcounlodn;t give a toss about...three times already. For the faithful, there's a handful of goodies to be lapped up..." Spin - 8 out of 10 - "...The record plays with the stereotype of B&S as wibbling fey-fop lollipops....upholstered with overdubs, strings, and, quite literally, bells and whistles, like a Colonial Williamsburg take on circa-'68 lite-pop..." Alternative Press - 5 out of 5 - "...Chock-full of the sort of timeless pop moments for which B&S have become famous, but this time with a more expansive palette....[It's] their most mature, satisfying album yet..." Rolling Stone (6/22/00, p.130) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Precious....proving nobody out there minces as well as this band....embellishing on the coyly lavish arrangements of '98s THE BOY WITH THE ARAB STRAP without forgetting to flex real heart muscles....Nick Drake would have loved this band." Spin (7/00, p.157) - 8 out of 10 - "...The record plays with the stereotype of B&S as wibbling fey-fop lollipops....upholstered with overdubs, strings, and, quite literally, bells and whistles, like a Colonial Williamsburg take on circa-'68 lite-pop..." Entertainment Weekly (6/9/00, p.78) - "...Lavishly produced, the disc trades melodic inventiveness for orchestral bells and whistles...[yet] there are plenty of sublime moments..." - Rating: B Mojo (7/00, p.100) - "...A set which finds B&S more '60s-obsessed than ever. Given time, fans will warm to PEASANT..." Alternative Press (7/00, pp.88-9) - 5 out of 5 - "...Chock-full of the sort of timeless pop moments for which B&S have become famous, but this time with a more expansive palette....[It's] their most mature, satisfying album yet..." Magnet (8-9/00, pp.67-8) - "...It glides along with humid grace....trading confusion for confidence....wonderful, sweeping songs." CMJ (6/5/00, p.3) - "...[They] quietly ease into adulthood with both soul and restraint, trading in wistful teenage nostalgia for a progressively refined...sense of longing and sadness..." NME (12/30/00, p.78) - Ranked #26 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". NME (6/3/00, p.41) - 8 out of 10 - "...A superb record. Quintessentially Belle & Sebastian. Frustrating. Contrary. Insubstantial. Yet...still peerless, still irresistible." Melody Maker (5/30/00, p.54) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...The band that's too twee to be twue have released the same album you've heard and loved/hatedcounlodn;t give a toss about...three times already. For the faithful, there's a handful of goodies to be lapped up..."

For their fourth and most cleverly titled album, Glasgow's fey folk-popsters Belle & Sebastian have constructed another 11 songs that at times reach into new musical and lyrical areas. Following secondary composer Stuart David's departure, de facto leader Stuart Murdoch divides the songwriting chores among the other members; yet what's apparent is the single-mindedness of Belle & Sebastian's song focus. The overall mood is even softer and more precious (if that can be believed) than their previous efforts. Murdoch and Chris Geddes' "Don't Leave The Light On Baby" is the band's attempt at a '70s soul ballad, a Wurlitzer adding a Music-of-My-Mind vibe to a lovers' dissertation. Isobel Campbell's "Beyond The Sunrise" is biblical Celtic-prog-folk, all flutes and acoustic guitar, while Jackson's own "The Wrong Girl" is an upbeat, country-ish lament with typically soulful Belle & Sebastian strings and trumpet giving the song an understated melodic kick. Of course, Murdoch contributes a classic or two--"I Fought a War" is a gentle away-at-the-battlefield tale imbued with the greatest sense of dread Murdoch's ever given a song. And "Woman's Realm" is the kind of pop stomper ARAB STRAP was packed to the gills with, highlighted here by its increasingly quiet surroundings.|

When Belle & Sebastian canceled several dates on their 1998 North American tour after cellist Isobel Campbell fell ill, many fans cried foul; couldn't the rest of the group have gone on without her? Of course not -- Belle & Sebastian is a band in the most democratic sense of the word, a point reinforced by Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, their fourth and most ambitiously eclectic album to date. Nominal frontman Stuart Murdoch recedes into the background even more than on The Boy With the Arab Strap, allowing bandmates like Campbell and Stevie Jackson to take on a greater share of the writing and vocal duties. Also like its predecessor, Fold Your Hands Child opts for a subtle, intimate palette that reveals its charms only in its own sweet time. It may be too subtle for its own good; even after repeated listens it fails to connect on any meaningful level. The record has many intriguing ideas (like the delicate "Beyond the Sunrise," which evokes the classic duets of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, and the vaguely rootsy "The Wrong Girl"), but few of the concepts seem fully developed. For better or worse, Fold Your Hands Child's best moments are those which hew most closely to the classic Belle & Sebastian sound -- that is, Stuart Murdoch songs. Though there's little advancement in his contributions, they capture the band's past glories. The radiant "Woman's Realm" is a dead ringer for The Boy With the Arab Strap's title cut, while "The Model" retreads so much lyrical and musical ground it could be a self-parody. Still, the album provokes an intriguing question: Belle & Sebastian may be a band, not Stuart Murdoch's solo project, but is that a good thing? ~ Jason Ankeny