God Help the Girl is the latest project from Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch. If you haven’t heard the full story behind the group, allow me. God Help the Girl is essentially the soundtrack to a film that hasn’t come out yet. According to Murdoch, he’s had the idea for this film for some time and on the heels of Belle & Sebastian’s last record, The Life Pursuit, he began placing ads for female singers to join him on the project. After scouring applications and deciding on a final line-up, God Help the Girl went into the studio to record. The result, along with an EP titled Stills, was this full-length self-titled record. The film, according to Murdoch, is still in the works but until then we have this album and, in a word, it’s absolutely charming. I guess that’s two words.
God Help the Girl is fourteen tracks long, featuring 2 previously recorded Belle & Sebastian songs, and 12 originals. But it’s important to note that this isn’t a second-hand album. Even the two B&S songs feel brand new under the treatment of a very skill female vocalist and with new arrangements. When you hear them, I think you’ll agree, that this could easily have been an entire recovering of The Life Pursuit and it would still be interesting and enjoyable to listen to.
God help the Girl is an album that fills up the entire room. It’s full and rich but maintains a sound that’s more minimal than the sometimes big Belle & Sebastian orchestration. It somehow walks the line between being simple and soulful but at the same time full of power and energy, and that’s a spectacular accomplishment.
The vibe of God Help the Girl is one of music that’s after it’s time. It harkens back to a time of singing. I get the impression that that was the idea behind the project, and a reason why Murdoch sought to find the perfect singers to take the lead. It’s very singer-driven, and as a result it captures emotions and tells a story in the way that I don’t think it could have if the singer was buried in a giant band or backed by more attention-grabbing music. That’s what I mean by simple. God Help the Girl is simple, musically, but in a way that allows its vocals to shine and it’s the singing, the telling of a story, that grabs you on this record. Each song is a story, in traditional Stuart Murdoch style, and with the singer right up front it’s the story that really shines.
Stripped from it’s associations, pretending that one of the world’s best songwriters wasn’t involved in its creation, God Help the Girl is a masterful piece of music-making. It has it, in all the right places. It’s soulful and introspective. It’s interesting and fun. It’s musically full and, as I said, absolutely charming.
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