Belle and Sebastian - 3...6...9 Seconds of Light

When a band releases three EP's in a single year, it seems reasonable to ask if they couldn't have just compiled them into a single album. The truth about Dog on Wheels, Lazy Line Painter Jane, and 3...6...9 Seconds of Light is that they are all so different that they wouldn't make a very cohesive album.

Dog on Wheels is a continuation of If You're Feeling Sinister's quiet greatness. Lazy Line Painter Jane is bizarre and delicious. 3...6...9 Second of Light feels French. So help me, "A Century of Fakers" and "Beautiful" could have been Serge Gainsbourg tunes and "Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie" and "Put the Book Back on the Shelf" could have been written by Jacques Brel. The whole lot of them could have later been translated and arranged for Scott Walker to sing. Anyway, you don't take beautiful, bizarre, and French and try to mash them together into a single album. You let them stay in EP form where they do the most good.

Baleeted? No, not according to my magic 8-ball....and my taste in music.