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8.0
1651
8.0 |
The Guardian
Virtually every song could fit on to a Belle and Sebastian album. None of which is to suggest it isn't good: the tunes are uniformly fantastic and the arrangements are charming
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8.0
1657
8.0 |
PopMatters
Murdoch’s created a set of perfect pop songs. It’s almost too lovely, but then lovely’s great sometimes too. God Help the Girl, old-fashioned and without artifice though it may be, is supremely welcoming. Its charm—and those tunes!—are likely to make it an album you find yourself returning to, again and again, for the simple joy of listening to it
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8.0
1658
8.0 |
No Ripcord
Save for a handful of forgettable excursions into tampering with a perfectly good formula, it’s a very well-written, cohesive collection of songs. Its main legacy may turn out to be, however, that a star has been discovered and a girl who may not need help from anyone, omnipotent deity or otherwise.
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8.0
7701
8.0 |
Uncut
Print edition only
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7.5
1656
7.5 |
Pitchfork
Catchy, jangling girl-group ditties aplenty, a little theatrical flourish thanks to Belle and Sebastian trumpeter Mick Cooke's orchestral arrangements, and at least one typically Murdoch-esque character, Eve. The imagery is always vivid, even when the plot isn't
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7.0
1650
7.0 |
Spin
Sounds like B&S sung by ladies. Murdoch pipes up now and again, but he's mostly content to play puppet master in his own lush pop cabaret
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6.0
1648
6.0 |
musicOMH
Pretty but inessential, God Help The Girl may make more sense when the film is finally delivered next year. Up until then this is largely of interest to Belle & Sebastian completists.
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6.0
1649
6.0 |
Drowned In Sound
In the mid-90s, Stuart Murdoch created characters to make up for a miserable few years, and many of them have more life than the characters of any songwriter you care to name. Now... he’s inadvertently shed some of the characteristics of good songwriting, whoever you are. Overachievers – please don’t try so hard!
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6.0
1652
6.0 |
The Independent
Murdoch's songs track the intricacies of repulsion and attraction, delusion and connivance, with more intelligence than La Roux bring to bear on similar matters
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6.0
1653
6.0 |
The Scotsman
Even though all the female singers come together on closing track, A Down And Dusky Blonde, it's an awkward collaboration and the subject matter – including references to hospital treatment for anorexia – hardly makes for a big jazz hands grand finale. God Help The Girl is an admirably ambitious undertaking but, as yet, we haven't heard the whole story
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6.0
1654
6.0 |
Scotland on Sunday
Stuart Murdoch's homage to all things swish and smooth in movies and musicals sounds more like Bert Kampfaert than Belle & Sebastian
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5.0
1655
5.0 |
The Observer
A story set to music, is how Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch describes his latest venture. Alas, this story could lose a few chapters
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