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Nov 04, 2014 God Help the Girl By Kyle Turner

If you are (like I was) largely unfamiliar with the delightful indie pop band Belle and Sebastian, perhaps the film and its soundtrack, God Help the Girl, is the perfect introduction. The original 2009 album was conceived as a special project by lead singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch as an opportunity for him to bring in different female vocalists to play a series of female characters. Murdoch then transformed the album into a film about a young woman (Emily Browning) recovering from an eating disorder while forming a pop group with her new friends (Olly Alexander and Hannah Murray).

The soundtrack features pieces of dialogue from the film and, rather than feeling like a gimmicky move that many soundtracks are prone to making, it contextualizes the songs, adding another layer of depth to the affair. The soundtrack is its own album, not unlike the original project.

There is an outstandingly winsome quality to the music, which is able to transition from something energetic like the title track to something far more melancholic (“Pretty Like the Wind”). Emily Browning, perhaps best known for her non-singing roles in Sucker Punch and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, seems to channel the likes of Anna Karina; the quality of her voice is nothing in comparison to the emotion she can inject into every song. It’s a good thing that it’s not the strongest, because neither is her character, Eve. That she sings at all is the point. Her voice, the album, and the film all lilt beautifully together. (us.godhelpthegirl.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10