Belle and Sebastian

Button up the cardie and tape up the hornrims: B&S's 2006 release is freaking fantastic. The witty, literate songcraft is still here, but the omnivorous genre-jumping has gotten even sharper, with group leader Stuart Murdoch introducing more of a lean '70s rock bite into the band's jangly '60s sound. "Song for the Sunshine" mixes Sly Stone in with Hall, Oates, Seals and Croft. Brilliant.

Like the Kinks and the Magnetic Fields, Scottish pop perfectionists Belle and Sebastian are
brilliant at pairing heart-tugging melodies with perfectly turned lyrics that favor kiss-offs
over come-ons. But on the group's seventh album, a little bit of the bloom has come off the
rose. The single "Funny Little Frog" -- with its Muswell Hillbillies horns and lyrical nod to the
early, amazing "The State I'm In" -- is cuter than it is clever. And attempts to augm... More >