PASA TEMPOS
album reviews
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN G irls in Peacetime Want to Dance (Matador Records) Nearly 20 years into their career, the members of Scottish indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian remain full of surprises. Their latest album, the longest to date, is their first one without a single weak track. This is an impressive accomplishment, considering the musicians’ résumé, which includes such classics as 1996’s If You’re Feeling Sinister and 2006’s
The Life Pursuit . Furthermore, Girls in Peacetime draws from all phases of Belle and Sebastian’s history. “Nobody’s Empire” is sophisticated, jangly pop and “The Cat With the Cream” uses gentle northern soul to tell an observational tale of adolescence — hallmarks of the band’s early days. Meanwhile, “The Party Line” and “Enter Sylvia Plath” are uptempo disco numbers that flex the extroverted muscles of the band’s more recent years. Belle and Sebastian also uncorks a few new tricks, including a boisterous Russian folk-dance theme in the chorus of “The Everlasting Muse.” Throughout, the mainstay is the sharp writing of Stuart Murdoch, who tells stories so vividly he comes across as a one-man film crew, with set designing, photography, writing, and acting all covered. If you’re an aspiring songwriter, you could do worse than study him: Songs like “Play for Today” weave male and female vocals with ’80s synth-pop instrumentation, turn melodies in on themselves, crescendo with ease, and offer lyrical substance. It’s flawless pop songcraft. — Robert Ker
TRIO LÉZARD Paris 1937 (Coviello Classics) Could there be a disc of woodwind chamber music more delightful than this release from the Trio Lézard, an ensemble of three German virtuosos? The players assemble short works by 10 composers, all French except for a few foreigners who were popular in Paris. Everything pretty much dates from 1937, a moment less rambunctious than the Roaring Twenties but still allowing for a large measure of good humor before the Nazis started elbowing their way through Europe. The performers first got together in 1990 as an ensemble comprising oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, but they all double on other woodwinds: On this CD they divide their talents among nine oboes, clarinets, saxophones, and bassoons of different sizes, yielding sonic surprises at every turn. They offer this release as a tribute to the Trio d’anches de Paris (Reed Trio of Paris), an acclaimed, muchrecorded ensemble of the ’30s. The playlist includes names that have largely fallen into obscurity, such as Jean Rivier, Maurice Franck, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Stan Golestan, and Émile Goué (who died young in a concentration camp). There’s not a track that doesn’t earn its keep. Sophisticated insouciance infuses each of the pieces, and the period style is carried through in four new arrangements of songs that scored hits for pop crooners Charles Trenet and Jean Sablon. This hourlong recital will turn every frown around. — James M. Keller