God Help the Girl – God Help the Girl

You are made of sterner stuff than I if the words "side project" and "concept album" do not bring about in you an immediate case of the vapours.

God Help the Girl – God Help the Girl

 

 

You are made of sterner stuff than I if the words "side project" and "concept album" do not bring about in you an immediate case of the vapours.  Such terms have been used in earnest by lesser publications to describe the eponymous debut by God Help the Girl, with scant regard for public health. 

 

Led by Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch and a handful of doe-eyed maidens of his acquaintance, the record mercifully sidesteps the usual pitfalls of themed pop LPs, even whilst tackling that time-honoured subject of mental illness.  It’s not exactly The Wall for bowlie kids: Act of the Apostle and Funny Little Frog are sullenly reprised from B&S’s The Life Pursuit but the title track and Musician, Please Take Heed positively skip around the hospital grounds.  The chips seem down for good in Perfection As A Hipster as the heroine Eve passes out in the arms of Anton, voiced here by The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon.  Happily though, the Wigan Casino stomp of Come Monday Night allows the wonderful string arrangements to sally forth and before long our lass is on the mend in the local disco.

 

Words: Joseph Wall