Belle And Sebastian: Storytelling

United by a shared understanding of suburban ennui, the music of Belle And Sebastian and the films of Todd Solondz make for a more natural match than the sum total of Solondz's Storytelling would suggest. Maybe that's why the film seems improved by its soundtrack album, which finds a heart beneath the layers of creeping misanthropy. According to Belle And Sebastian trumpeter Mick Cooke, only about six minutes of music composed for the film made it into the final cut. That leaves the band with a grab bag of instrumental and vocal tracks that are too specific in their intent for a proper B&S album, but which (dialogue excerpts aside) have only a passing connection to the film itself. As an album, Storytelling is most easily viewed as an assortnment of B&S songs that almost accidentally make up a compelling album all their own, though split almost evenly between instrumental and vocal tracks. The former reveal that the group's idea of a cinematic score has a lot in common with the work of Ennio Morricone—although, typically enough for a band that avoids directly canonical influences, tracks like "Freak," "Fuck This Shit," and "Consuelo" owe a greater debt to the work Morricone turned out for indistinguishable romances and thrillers in the '60s and '70s than to any of his more famous efforts. The brief, dreary "I Don't Want To Play Football" aside, the vocal tracks have the unforced charm of the singles that Belle And Sebastian regularly turns out between albums: sunny pop with rainy lyrics. There's an unprecedented hint of funk on "Big John Shaft," a song about the impossibility of balancing Hollywood acting and self-respect, written for Storytelling actor Robert Wisdom. And the title track sums up the themes of Solondz's film in just over three minutes, without any limp stabs at American Beauty or uncomfortable gags about cerebral palsy. Not a bad trick.