Over the years, Scotland's Belle & Sebastian has established itself as an influence to almost all purveyors of contemporary indie rock. The Life Pursuit, the band's latest work, shows why.

             "You can hear T-Rex on the surface," Belle & Sebastian's singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch commented. "When it was being mixed, echoes were added, and stuff. But it's only on the surface."

             Regardless of where the influence comes from, The Life Pursuit is Belle & Sebastian's most rock album to date, moving the band further in the direction Dear Catastrophe Waitress took, away from the pop ballads of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, and The Boy with the Arab Strap that Belle & Sebastian made its bones with. Where did the change in direction come from?

             "It's been a natural evolution," Murdoch explained.  "There are advantages and disadvantages in being in a band with seven people. It can be unwieldy, but with seven people you have seven different talents and tastes, so you're never at a loss for ideas."

             The album is so much more of a rock album, in fact, that "The Blues are Still Blue," the second single from the album, wouldn't even sound out of place with Tom Petty or Steve Miller, much less T-Rex. "When I was writing the album, I was listening to more crap 80s hits than anything else," Murdoch confessed, "like Cindi Lauper, the Bangles, and Hall & Oates—and an English band called Furniture."

             It's also quite a bit more revealing and personal than previous Belle & Sebastian albums. "Funny Little Frog," the album's first single, is a confession of an obsession with an unattainable woman. Many have already speculated who this confession might be about. "It's funny," Murdoch commented, "because I've had several relationships since Isobel, both real and imaginary, but everyone asks if the songs I'm writing now are about her. No, it's not about Isobel. I wrote it about this girl I was sort of obsessed with a while ago, and I think writing the song helped me get over the obsession."

             The confessions don't stop there. Lyrically, the most revealing part of The Life Pursuit is how much of at least Murdoch's religious faith it explores—more than on, probably, any previous Belle & Sebastian release. From merely the title of "Acts of the Apostles," the album opener, to lyrics in several songs, we see references to Murdoch's spiritual experience. And while none of the album is as straightforward as Tigermilk's "The State I am In," the album contains conversations about the New Testament in "We are the Sleepyheads" (So I went around to your house / Over tea and gin we talked about the things we read / In Luke and John the things he said), as well as the story of a girl looking for God in "Acts of the Apostles" (The city was losing its appeal / God was asleep / He was back in her village, in the fields).

             "It is a central part of my life," Murdoch said of his faith, "but I never liked to ram it down anybody's throat. I've found that in music or film, if something is in the background, I'm more likely to go looking for it."

             And so The Life Pursuit is, in various ways, a multi-layered rock album. It covers several different genres while flowing consistently and remaining coherent, it is intimate and personal, and it breaks new ground for Stuart Murdoch and his septet.

Belle and Sebastian on Tour in the US:
* w/ The New Pornographers

3/15 AUSTIN - Stubbs SXSW
3/18 LOS ANGELES - Wiltern *
3/19 LOS ANGELES - Wiltern *
3/21 SAN FRANCISCO - The SF Design Center *
3/23 PORTLAND - Roseland Ballroom *
3/24 VANCOUVER - Commodore
3/25 SEATTLE - Paramount *