Track Listing

1. I Fought In A War
2. The Model
3. Beyond the Sunrise
4. Waiting For The Moon To Rise
5. Don't Leave The Light On, Baby
6. The Wrong Girl
7. Nice Day For A Sulk
8. Chalet Lines
9. Woman's Realm
10. Family Tree
11. There's Too Much Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14272 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
A cheerful pluck at the heartstrings, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant--Belle And Sebastian's fourth studio album--finds Scotland's finest twee-pop ensemble in playful mood. While previous album The Boy With The Arab Strap was characterised by hushed operatic drama, Fold Your Hands Child... skips and romps like an unruly infant--a far less focused piece, but endearing nonetheless. Stuart Murdoch is, as ever, the heart and soul of Belle & Sebastian, and it's his contributions that really shine--the sprightly "Woman's Realm" effortlessly taking centre stage. On "Beyond The Sunrise", Stevie Jackson hasn't quite grown into his Leonard Cohen baritone, and on "Family Tree", Isobel Campbell's lyrics are cloyingly twee: "I'm stuck in a cage / With a bottle of rage / And a family like the Mafia." But forgive them their follies--on Fold Your Hands Child..., these shy indie waifs make music that speaks volumes. And that's enough. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
For their fourth and most cleverly titled album, Glasgow's fey folk-popsters Belle & Sebastian have constructed another11 songs that at times reach into new musical and lyrical areas. Following secondary composer Stuart David's departure,de facto leader Stuart Murdoch divides the songwriting chores among the other members; yet what's apparent is the single-mindedness of Belle & Sebastian's song focus. The overall mood is even softer and more precious (if that can be believed) than their previous efforts. Murdoch and Chris Geddes' "Don't Leave The Light On Baby" is the band's attempt at a '70s soul ballad, a Wurlitzer adding a Music-of-My-Mind vibe to a lovers' dissertation. Isobel Campbell's "Beyond The Sunrise" is biblical Celtic-prog-folk, all flutes and acoustic guitar, while Jackson's own "The Wrong Girl" is an upbeat, country-ish lament with typically soulful Belle & Sebastian strings and trumpet giving the song an understated melodic kick. Of course, Murdoch contributes a classic or two--"I Fought a War" is a gentle away-at-the-battlefield tale imbued with the greatest sense of dread Murdoch's ever given a song. And "Woman's Realm" is the kind of pop stomper ARAB STRAP waspacked to the gills with, highlighted here by its increasingly quiet surroundings.

Customer Reviews

peerless
Probably the most charming band I can think of reach a certain level of pop perfection on this release. Admittedly I'm not fussed on beyond the sunrise, but let's not linger on that minor gripe, what about the rest of the album.
I fought in a war is a typically strong opener on a B&S album, and while it pleases it is nothing compared with don't leave the lights on or the wrong girl. Two excellent popo songs that won't leave you're head. Family tree is Isobel's charming and somewhat amusing little song near the end and is in good company with women's realm.
However the album's highpoint has to be the harrowing chalet lines which I won't go into particular detail about as I find the song to beautiful for words. Truely, you will enjoy this album...I promise

Dirty Dream Numbers 3-13
Pet Sounds clones are a dime a dozen. Every month someone, somewhere, claims unearned kudos for the latest indie fad by comparing it with the Beach Boys' 1966 masterwork. In the case of Fold Your Hands Child, however, there really is no other precedent. On the evidence of their 3 earlier efforts, Belle & Sebastian seem incapable of writing a bad tune, but here they've transcended even those illustrious early works: 11 perfectly cut pop gems, as graceful and exacting as Brian Wilson used to produce.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with the album's predecessor, The Boy With the Arab Strap. One of those songs in particular points to the new direction, 'Dirty Dream Number 2', the exquisite soul pastiche. Sarah Martin's violin works similar wonders here on 'The Model', 'Don't Leave the Light On Baby', 'Women's Realm' and 'There's Too Much Love', the sweetest string sounds imaginable, soaring and diving, wringing every nuance of heartbreak from the accompanying lyric. The same soulful vivacity infuses the rest of the album - call it, then, 'Dirty Dream Numbers 3 to 13'.

'I Fought In a War' begins like an ancient folk hymn, then carries its elegiac tone into a contemporary pop setting. The harpsichord, another new feature, seems custom-built for the B&S musical blueprint. It adds extra fervour to 'Waiting for the Moon to Rise' and propels 'The Model', the latter a classic Stuart Murdoch tale of emotional confusion, using painting as a metaphor for a dysfunctional relationship. In stark contrast is the concentrated, hesitant 'Beyond the Sunrise', which demonstrates how impeccably arranged the sound has become. Harking back to the Lee Hazlewood-Nancy Sinatra duets of the sixties, it features male and female vocal parts, choir-like backing, startlingly audible fretwork (you can hear the fingers working), church bells, and backwards guitar - all of it used sparingly, for embellishment. Understatement is the keyword in the Belle & Sebastian glossary.

It's a relief to know that someone has finally got around to following up the Smiths' 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'. The song, 'Nice Day for a Sulk', hitches a jaunty, lilting rhythm to an ethereal and uplifting vocal melody. Even the soul turn itself takes a new turn, on 'Don't Leave the Light On Baby'. The singer slips between cautious regret and bitter resignation, over a haunting and soulful keyboards-and-strings refrain (if you're feeling sinister). More pointed is 'The Chalet Lines', a first-person retelling of a girl's rape, sung by Murdoch. Yet this apparently straightforward and spartan lament contains its own subtleties. Even as the sharp colloquialisms make the incident seem more harrowing, the sense of helplessness and despair cannot extinguish a spark of defiance.

The next single, 'The Wrong Girl', telegraphs the essence of the B&S sound: a melody that you've heard a hundred times before, sounding like you're hearing it for the first time, every time. And then before it's barely begun, you're ensnared in that strange, magical, unfathomable mood they seem to conjure up at will. Such pristine pop purity is rarely achieved on a single, let alone a whole album.

Can a better one possibly come out this year?

Can they make a bad record?
The only bad words I can say about this record are "Nice day for a sulk", but I suppose they needed something light and easy-going after the tragic, harrowing "Chalet lines". "I fought in a war" is my favourite B&S track ever, I only wish they had written it earlier. It begins with simple vocals over a barely-heard accousic guitar, then builds via a gorgeous guitar line to a sublime, trumpet lead instrumental. The jazzy, "There's too much love" is brilliant as well, "Beyond the sunrise" and "Don't leave the light on baby" are less accessible but very good all the same. I can't say whether it's better or worse than their last album, because they're very much different records. This is just a peach of an album.