Belle and Sebastian "The Boy with the Arab Strap" [1998]

Nick Drake died way too soon; had he stuck around long enough to hear Belle and Sebastian, he'd finally have received all the adulation he thought he was due but really wasn't. Plus, he'd have some extraordinarily fey and glum Brits to mope around with and make him feel like he belonged, and he could have told them when to fucking end a song. But it's not just Drake this band is musically molesting on "The Boy with the Arab Strap," it's at turns Mo Tucker lead vocal amateur hour with extra-wimpy Lou Reed, along with stoned John Phillips demos and that jive-ass mellow beat the Beatles and the Stones were wise enough to stay away from but almost no one else in the 60s was. For "good" measure (though it's anything but), there's some Stonesish smacked-out slide, Winwood wheezing on the B-3, that Motown "every beat" drumming and a dab of Arthur Lee's patchouli oil. All this as if stupid neo-deadheads hadn't completely raped and pillaged 60s culture a full decade before this album was released. As a result, Belle and Sebastian come off about as interesting, progressive and courageous as tuna casserole with a Jello mold for dessert. It sounds for all the world like they've constructed a shoebox diorama of a hippie party for their homework assignment, and its affect is just as small and underwhelming.