High Fidelity

ROB
What's playing?
DICK
It's the new Belle & Sebastian. You like it?
ROB
I don't know. Yeah, I guess.
DICK
Yeah. [pause] But it's really not as good as their older stuff. I mean, there are some good songs on here, I guess, but they're not as good as anything from If You're Feeling Sinister, or even The Boy with the Arab Strap. It's weird, because the songs definitely sound better, but the album is still kind of disappointing.
ROB [half paying attention]
Hmm.
DICK
But, then, you know how when you really like a band, the first album you've heard by them usually stands out as the best? I mean, after that first great album you hear, bands pretty rarely measure up to your expectations again.
ROB
Yeah, that seems to happen a lot.
DICK
So, maybe this is really a decent album that I just don't like because my expectations are too skewed. But it certainly isn't the best thing Belle & Sebastian have ever done. Maybe half the album is good, but given these guys' track record, half a good album doesn't cut it.
ROB
What's the problem with it?
DICK
Well, Belle & Sebastian used to be just Stuart Murdoch's songs, but on Arab Strap, the other members started contributing songs, too. That's not so much the problem, though, because Isobel Campbell's two tracks here are really good. It's Stevie Jackson and Stuart David's songs that get on my nerves. "Beyond the Sunrise" is so pallid and lugubrious it's silly, and "The Wrong Girl" seems too insipidly poppy.
ROB (sarcastically)
A Belle & Sebastian song that's too poppy?
DICK
Hey, Stuart Murdoch's best songs have always been breezy, but they're usually given heft by dry wit and eccentric detail. On this album, his better songs are the sadder, more serious ones-- "I Fought in a War" and "The Chalet Lines." His lighter, more pop-driven songs come off more like parodies of Belle & Sebastian songs, or, at best, outtakes from past albums. "The Model" and "Women's Realm" sound like he's trying too hard, cramming in as much lyrical and musical detail as he can. All that decoration just crushes the song, which, you know, wasn't that great in the first place.
ROB
So, you don't like the record, then.
DICK
No, no, it's okay. But like I said, it's disappointing. I think in the long run, I'll listen to Sinister and even Arab Strap more than this one.
BARRY enters the store.
BARRY
Holy shit! What the fuck is that?
ROB
It's the tape we've been listening to. And enjoying.
BARRY
Well, that's unfortunate because it sucks ass.
BARRY ejects the tape from the stereo and tosses it over his shoulder towards DICK.
BARRY (to DICK)
Yours, I assume?