Older readers will recall a soft-drink ad that featured a polar bear pronouncing: “It’s frothy, man.” That will do nicely as a description of The Life Pursuit — surely the frothiest album to emerge since the end of the 1960s. Belle and Sebastian have long been masters of the fine art of teaming upbeat music with downbeat lyrics, but the music here is so extraordinarily upbeat that analysing the lyrics seems entirely ridiculous. Why spoil the summery mood by finding out what happens after the opening couplet, “For the price of a cup of tea/You get a line of coke”? I’d prefer to think that the girlfriend in the single Funny Little Frog (a perfect taster for the album as a whole, by the way) actually is the singer’s girlfriend, rather than explore the — admittedly more likely — interpretation that the singer is some kind of stalker. B&S have been treading water a bit since 2000’s Fold Your Hands, but the irresistible poppiness of Life Pursuit should provide just the jolt they (and you) need.

Rough Trade

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