No matter how much fun a party is, it’s got to end at some point. Depending on the party and the hosts, this can happen when it’s supposed to, as people get tired and the vibe runs out. Or it can be postponed with coffee, or drugs, or music and clung to long past the point of when it was of any use to the attendees. Anyone who’s heard the morning birds stir as the night sky slowly turns back into day knows the feeling of having overdone it on the fun at the expense of everything else. The dread of what’s to come, in spite of the elated moment. It’s this way with most things. Knowing when to make an exit is an actual skill, and very few people have it.
When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. All good things, right?
On Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Belle and Sebastian throw an awesome party, one they want to last all night. Gone are the 3 minute ditties lamenting hard-won truths of life lived during the decline of empire, and in their place are 5 to 7 minute disco soundscapes backed by a hot beat and sung mostly in falsetto. The vibe is up, the party live, and Belle and Sebastian want us to know that it’s okay to enjoy ourselves. You’d have to be dead not to bounce your head or wiggle an appendage to this music.
Problem is, they don’t know when to end it. As a result, this record goes on waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.
Twenty minutes could easily be removed without losing anything important. It’s not that anything here is bad, but what momentum these songs generate gets leeched by endless codas that might work fine in the live setting to keep a pumped-up crowd going strong but on the record simply get repetitive. It would be one thing if each of these songs morphed and changed over their duration, as does the excellent “Perfect Couples,” but too many go in circles around their theme and melody without ever adding up to much.
Intermixed with the disco burners, Belle and Sebastian drop the occasional elegant, nearly-weightless nugget of trademarked Scottish melancholy. “Ever Had a Little Faith?” carries the torch for that sound, a classic sad, hopeful bit of B&S loveliness to add to the collection. These moments provide a welcome change of pace, to be sure, but they also go to show that the other parts of Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance would’ve benefited immensely from an editor, someone who could tell Stuart Murdoch and Stevie Jackson, “Listen guys, this shit is great, but maybe rein it in a little?”
There’s so much to love about this album that it’s a drag to think about how lacking it winds up being. For all the upbeat zone outs, there’s not enough actual songcraft to maintain interest beyond those head bobs and arm wiggles.Murdoch isn’t the greatest, most powerful singer, we know this, and it’s actually kind of a selling point. For years, his greatest compositions have suited his abilities exactly, delivering modest beauty upon modest beauty to fans eager for a feeling they can understand, and enjoy. With Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, though, he mostly eschews those old flavors in favor of something that will keep the party going on into infinity. The album tries so hard to live up to its goofy name, but this direction may have been better pursued as a five-song EP, nothing but the choicest cuts and any filler left on the cutting room floor.
Instead, we have an album from Belle and Sebastian that’s totally great and fine and lovely, but. These songs should be a lot of fun in concert, and maybe that’s what the brain trust had in mind this time around. Though perfectly understandable, it doesn’t make for a great end-to-end listen, something almost unthinkable for Belle and Sebastian once upon a time. By the end of Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, the morning birds are stirring, the night sky is lightening back into day, and something doesn’t feel quite right, regardless of how much fun we’ve had so far.
Rating: 3/5