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Thursday, May 15, 2003
From the Pitchfork newswire this morning:

So just when you were about to give up all hope for Belle & Sebastian, maybe you shouldn't. Or should you?

We have! After releasing the phantastical Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister, the band began a rapid digression, all of which seemed to culminate in their soundtrack to Todd Solondz's cinematic disaster Storytelling. And then, when things seemed their bleakest, the group lost founding member Isobel Campbell during the second half of 2002. But according to a recent report from NME, the worst may be yet to come.

Belle & Sebastian have selected producer Trevor Horn to tackle the recording of their fifth studio album. Now, for the uninitiated, Horn has a pretty stellar history, having founded the legendary avant-garde sound experiment The Art of Noise, as well as new wave pop sensations The Buggles. But his choices as a producer-- aside from a bright spot here and there (Malcolm McLaren's hip-hop oddity Duck Rock, sort of)-- have been less prestigious, seeing him working with Spandau Ballet, 90s Rod Stewart, latter-day Yes (of which he is an erstwhile member), and Mike Oldfield (of "Tubular Bells" fame). These days, you can find Horn's fingerprint on albums by Leann Rimes, Faith Hill, Boyzone, and yes, even T.A.T.U.'s latest smash, "The Things She Said".


See, I think that sounds awesome. B&S with the europop-happy stylings of that awesome TATU song? Awesome. I also think that people who say that B&S have "gone downhill" since Tigermilk should join the people who say "REM never did anything as good as Murmur, man" in the "Merzbow's complete works played at maximum volume" listening booth.

In happier news, I finally picked up the music issue of the Oxford American, and William Bowers' article is, indeed, awesome.

UPDATE: Christ, I sure said "awesome" a lot in this post, didn't I? Sorry about that.