Of course, it's all so subjective, but I think this single is the best they've produced so far. The openning track is more formally satyrical, the lead singer actually stylizing his singing voice quite dramatically! It's odd that this is the title song, though. Although certainly very enjoyable (great back-up vocals that you'll have to sing along with) it's not the best of the three. The following tracks, however, are really fantastic. I love my car is so beautifully produced, has such rich sound, but retains that honest crisp sound that Belle and Sebastian make their trademark. The melody is amazingly catchy (if a bit jingle-like) and the beat is infectious in an old dixieland jazz kind of way. This is the first track that suddenly hit me, and I listened to it over and over, like seven or eight times in a row. But most astounding is Marx and Engels, which I think is their most beautiful song to date. As always, their lyrics are fascinating, but the melody is just so sweet and rhapsodic. Again, the producing is really excellent. All the instrumentation is very well played and surrounds you in a soft, warm shower of harmony. With a lovely vocal counterpoint and an almost mystical ending, this song has more of a dramatic shape than most Belle and Sebastian songs. It travels farther and offers an interesting revelation at the very end. It's a total classic.
This EP packs more gorgeous harmony, lush instrumentation and charming lyrics into its 10 short minutes than most bands manage in a full album, if ever. "Waking Up To Us" sounds a bit like a lost Roy Orbison/Phil Spector tune from the 60's, with its rich orchestration and Stuart's heart-thumping-on-sleeve vocal delivery. It's full of wonderful violin and oboe counter-melodies, and it wins my award for Best Use Of Bassoon In A Rock Song. What if the Squirrel Nut Zippers covered the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows?" The result might sound a lot like "I Love My Car." I can't get its bouncy, swaggering horn melody out of my head. More wonderful, inscrutable Stuart lyrics here: "I love the rat who lives under the floor and makes his bed from novelettes." He's got triple the imagination of most songwriters. "Marx and Engels" could hold its own with the best of "If You're Feeling Sinister." It's a warm, gentle piano tune, in which our hero's advances are rebuffed by that cute Communist Manifesto-reading riot grrl in the local laundrette. I feel like all the previous B&S albums have been building toward this point. It's relaxed, whimsical, intimate and rich. You won't want to do without this disc.
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