Belle & Sebastian
Johnathan David
(Matador Records)

Buying singles, in America at least, has always been an expensive and inefficient way to collect music. Without the emphasis on singles that exists in Britain, for example, here in the States singles cost almost half the price of a full album, and all you get is the A-side and one or two throwaway B-sides. However, with Belle & Sebastian, single-buying is quite a different enterprise. They have no B-sides — because they have no A-sides.
Jonathan David is the group’s 5th single, and like all the others, is completely distanced from any LP. Their singles don’t support or complement their albums, and vice-versa. This unique approach has recently yielded two of the band’s best songs to date, the epic “This is Just a Modern Rock Song” and the club hit “Legal Man.” Unfortunately, just as the last LP Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant signaled a gradual decline in the Scottish twee cynics’ ability to craft perfect pop melodies and consistently gripping lyrics, “Jonathan David” is their weakest single so far. The title track is a typically bitter dissection of a love triangle, but is accompanied by some awkward chord changes and harsh vocals coming from Stevie Jackson, filling in for regular lead Stuart Murdoch.

“Take Your Carriage Clock and Shove It” is the one highlight of the single, a literary short story about the soulless demise of an office building environment. Murdoch’s comforting lullaby voice obscures the brutality of the song’s conclusion. Then the single ends with an old song dusted off and finally put on record, “The Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner,” which is a mediocre re-tread of standard B&S pluckiness. Hints of the band’s genius still exist with Jonathan David, but only die-hard fans intent on collecting all releases need seek it out.
5 blips out of 10
 
By Zach Ralston