The Musicgoer: Stuart Murdoch's God Help The Girl

STUART MURDOCH
God Help the Girl
(Matador)
**** (out of 5)

It’s billed as “a story set to music by Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian,” but if only it were that simple! It’s still not clear, even after listening to it, if God Help the Girl might be a concept album, or the soundtrack to an upcoming feature film. There’s a short story in the liner notes about Eve, a young woman drifting in and out of university classrooms, rock clubs, and psychiatric wards — but many of the songs are attributed to characters whose names appear nowhere in the story. It’s not even clear if this is a Belle and Sebastian record — many of his old bandmates play on it, and he even covers two songs from The Life Pursuit.

What is clear is that these are some of the strongest tunes Murdoch has written since Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. It’s not just that Murdoch writes so well from a female perspective; it’s that he so deftly captures the voice of this specific young woman, “born to be contrary,” carrying around a copy of The Independent “to make me look like I got brains,” “a slutty look accompanying my questionable gaze.” Newcomer Catherine Ireton — whom Murdoch found through a newspaper ad — hits just the right note of youthful resignation: her delivery earns “Come Monday Night” a place next to “Manic Monday” and “Monday, Monday” in the pantheon of sweetly melancholy pop odes to the beginning of yet another dreary work week.