Alternate Perspectives: 'God Help the Girl'

Let's try (try!) and return to a sense of normality after the nutty events of the day: this week in the Weekly, there's a review of God Help the Girl (out now), the "soundtrack" to an as-yet unfilmed movie written by Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. There's two reimagined Belle & Sebastian songs on the record ("Funny Little Frog" and "Act of the Apostle," both from 2006's The Life Pursuit), and Murdoch only pops up on lead vocals for a couple tracks; the rest is from a host of female vocalists, mainly the (heretofore) relatively unknown Catherine Ireton, but guest spots from folks like Asya, of Seattle's teenage sister trio Smoosh.

Being an unabashed B&S fanboy, I've been listening to it the last couple of days and have found it pretty neat, though I haven't really thoroughly examined it yet (also listening to the new Regina Spektor, y'know). Tami Fertig, who reviewed it for us in print, was a little less charmed (and she's a big B&S/Scottish pop fan!). Over at our sister paper in Phoenix, Thomas Bond was rather impressed, saying, "Overall, God Help The Girl sounds pretty much like a Belle and Sebastian album would, had departed B&S singer Isobel Campbell taken most of the lead vocals and left a few to Murdoch, instead of the other way round." High praise!

Heard it? Weigh in on the comments!