G is for .....God Help The Girl!

Ok, so strictly speaking I think only the brainchild, Stuart Murdoch (of Belle and Sebastian fame) is Scottish but the rest of God Help The Girl are at least based in Glasgow. I still feel bad for leaving Belle and Sebastian out of the A to Z so this goes some way towards compensating. Although this means the mighty Glasvegas misses out. Can't win them all!

Anyway, for those of you not familiar with Stuart Murdoch's new project, here's the gist of it straight from the horses mouth (or more precisely, from the band's website):

“I was out for a run and I got this tune in my head and it occurred to me that it wasn’t a Belle & Sebastian song. I could hear female voices and strings, I could hear the whole thing, but I just couldn’t envisage myself singing it with the group....
....all the time I was touring with Belle and Sebastian, I was putting aside songs for certain characters and at one point I realised, that it would make sense to string them together to form the backbone of a musical narrative."

The self-titled album is joy to listen to, mostly down to a combination of great songwriting, beautiful vocals and stunning orchestral arrangements. The fact that The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon makes an appearance helps too!

In particular the reworking of Belle and Sebastian's "Funny Little Frog" begs to be heard.

mp3: God Help the Girl - Funny Little Frog