Dear Catastrophe Waitress is the only Belle & Sebastian album I ever bought on CD, but they were a pretty important band for me as a teenager, ever since my friend Brenna introduced me to them in 10th grade. I bought this CD at a record store in Washington, DC the spring after my disastrous 1st semester of college. My familiarity with the band's '90s albums gave me a bit of a shock when I popped it in the player. Gone was the wistful, cutesy, bare-bones sound of their early records, replaced with a boisterous attitude & polished, radio-ready production. In particular, Stuart Murdoch's vocals (lonesome & thin in prior incarnations) are now given the full, vivid multitrack treatment.
To Stuart & co.'s credit, the time was exactly right for a shakeup. The band's original formula was getting tired by Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, & the Storytelling record was more interesting for the Todd Solondz collaboration than anything they did musically. This album came charging out the gate with "Step Into My Office, Baby," signaling their intention to throw ambitious, multi-part compositions at us complete with tempo, key & time changes, as well as novel instrumentation. While the band had always incorporated orchestral instruments, Dear Catastrophe Waitress was where they went full chamber pop, with only 2 songs not featuring a string section, horn section, or both: the Celtic folk-inflected acoustic number "Piazza, New York Catcher," & "Lord Anthony," which sounds like an outtake from the If You're Feeling Sinister sessions. After that track ends, the slow, luxuriant piano intro of "If You Find Yourself" makes us think we're in for another "Boy Done Wrong Again," before the band kicks into a peppy pop-psychedelia number along the lines of the Lovin' Spoonful.
"Step Into My Office, Baby" is brimming with the confidence & enthusiasm of the best 1960s pop, which is clearly the stylistic territory the album explores. (It's also a great example of the band's knack for making momentous-sounding songs out of lowbrow topics like masturbation or sleeping with your boss.) More swinging '60s sounds await in the Bhangra-style strings of the title track or the Motown affectations of the otherwise relatively straightforward "If She Wants Me." Closer to home, we get the very British sounding pop of the irresistibly danceable "I'm A Cuckoo" & the trombone & vibraphone hook of "You Don't Send Me."
If Dear Catastrophe Waitress has a weakness in the songwriting department, it's that it doesn't quite match the magic of its exuberant opener, making the whole midsection feel like a moderate letdown. Luckily, they come back with the complex bluesy psychedelia of 6-minute closer "Stay Loose," dominated by organ stabs, guitar licks, & those lovely choral vocals in a song with about 4 different hooks that are all diabolically catchy.
Despite having a lot of love for this album, I stopped following Belle & Sebastian thereafter, & I'm not entirely sure why. 3 years went by before their next album, by which time I wasn't really in the headspace for indie pop. Although I appreciated the change in direction heralded by Dear Catastrophe Waitress, I was aware that nothing they did thenceforward would hit me the same way their lo-fi rainy-day anthems did when I was in high school. After a fresh listen to this one, though, I think I'll go check out what they've been up to lately.
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