Search - Belle & Sebastian :: I'm Waking Up to Us

Absolutely essential

Scot | Chapel Hill, NC USA | 10/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This EP packs more gorgeous harmony, lush instrumentation and charming lyrics into its 10 short minutes than most bands manage in a full album, if ever."Waking Up To Us" sounds a bit like a lost Roy Orbison/Phil Spector tune from the 60's, with its rich orchestration and Stuart's heart-thumping-on-sleeve vocal delivery. It's full of wonderful violin and oboe counter-melodies, and it wins my award for Best Use Of Bassoon In A Rock Song.What if the Squirrel Nut Zippers covered the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows?" The result might sound a lot like "I Love My Car." I can't get its bouncy, swaggering horn melody out of my head. More wonderful, inscrutable Stuart lyrics here: "I love the rat who lives under the floor and makes his bed from novelettes." He's got triple the imagination of most songwriters."Marx and Engels" could hold its own with the best of "If You're Feeling Sinister." It's a warm, gentle piano tune, in which our hero's advances are rebuffed by that cute Communist Manifesto-reading riot grrl in the local laundrette. I feel like all the previous B&S albums have been building toward this point. It's relaxed, whimsical, intimate and rich. You won't want to do without this disc."

LOVE EVERY SONG

Ruben H Jimenez | Oxnard, CA USA | 11/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great single/EP... one of their best, I think. I'm Waking Up to Us is fantastic. I Love My Car is a great shift for them musically. Marx & Engles, classic B&S lyrics. I HIGHLY recomend this. A MUST have for a B&S fan or for anyone genuinly interested in getting into them. Why take an SSRI when you have new B&S to listen to?"