I had a great conversation a few weeks back with my oldest friend, who I only see very occasionally. Not enough really because he's one of the good guys. Garth, who I met in 1975, in my short trousered primary school days. My family moved from Nottingham to Richmond, in South West London when I was 9 and I started making the morning trek up Richmond Hill to Vineyard Infants. I look back on it as a quite idyllic period of my life. I had a couple of quite golden youthful years before embarking on the Secondary School experience which was an altogether more troubled and shadowy story. I won't scare you with that here.
So, last month, Garth and I had a couple of great pints in a favourite pub, overlooking Richmond Park, reliving days of long ago which still resonate within us even now. It was a wonderful evening. As we got to the end of the night, Garth got to his feet, somewhat unsteadily, (we're getting on and were in our cups), and declared, for no particular reason, his undying distaste for everything about Belle & Sebastian. It was a very funny and memorable moment. We all have our bete noirs. It's best we express them occasionally.
Still, it was a slightly surprising moment. Garth is a positive fellow by nature, always trying to find the best in everything and everybody, while Belle & Sebastian have always struck me as rather likeable, I adore them personally, and would have thought that even if they weren't to all tastes, they were rather unobjectionable, but clearly Garth didn't and doesn't concur, Something about them really got and gets his goat.
I probably won't be recommending Northwest Wimp strummers Your Heart Breaks, to Garth. A cursory listen to their latest magnus opus The Wreck Line immediately indicates that they hang in the same hood as Stuart Murdoch and his pals.
There's a cuteness, a preciousness here that fans of B&S will immediately recognise and probably cherish. Your Heart Breaks are of the Indie All Tomorrow's Parties fraternity. The Decemberists, Modern Mouse, Vampire Weekend, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens, The Innocence Mission. Those guys. The community of sensitive indie souls. B&S's American cousins.
Your Heart Breaks singers, he and she, have those slightly icky cartoony voices you hear on animation for adults TV programmes. Their songs narrate tales that tell of plodding your way through your lives with kids and partners and friends in small nondescript American Mid-West towns. The kind of people who are hoping above all else that Pavement will reform and play somewhere within driving distance. Meaning in turn that they'll need to organise babysitters so they can go together and remember how they bonded over Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, back in their courting days. This is a very, very likeable record. It's melodic, heartwarming, nuanced and smart. But possibly not one for Garth.
Haha, I have some sympathy with Garth! Not quite Teenage Fanclub, as I loved the first few albums, but I haven't really listened since the 90s... Also, haven't quite managed to listen to Your Heart Breaks all the way through yet. One hour is a bit too much! Can recommend the new 2m8o album for some C86-ish indiepop. Took me way too long to figure out that you pronounce it as the American for tomato, even after watching the video for the opening track several times!
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