If you have have ever heard an album or two of Belle and Sebastian, you know they have a general but distinct style. Yes they experiment on every song and they sound different in that way, but there is still a "Belle and Sebness" to each one. Although Stuart Murdoch is the only member of the band to take part in this, I still feel that Style all throughout this, so much so that I cant really consider this a side project so much as them adding an extremely strong and gifted female vocalist to the Belle and Sebastian ensemble.
Vocally this album is excellent, I don't know where Stuart found Catherine Ireton, but it was a match made in heaven. She has such vocal power and range its hard to feel anything but awe of her in some of these songs. In "Musician Please Take Heed" for instance, she just sounds amazing, extreme range and clear sounding. The women that do backup vocals on this album and who have some of their own songs, are pretty excellent as well. I know other people say comparing this to Belle and Seb. is its downfall, but honestly I think the vocals on this are much stronger all around.
Lyrically this is a lot like Belle and Seb. albums, a lot of stories and mentioning of other songs. It is somewhat different from those other albums, in that I think a lot of these songs go for the throat more in regards to immediate catchiness. These songs seemed more streamlined and polished in every way compared to Belle and Seb. songs.
Instrumentally, this is a lot like a Belle and Sebastian album, except the experimentation and genre exploring comes more from earlier decades than most Belle and Sebastian Albums. This seems to explore the forties, fifties and sixties more. I really love the direction this album takes in that way and I see a lot of twee bands doing the same thing right now. The Like, The School, etc, a lot of twee bands seem to be going for the fifties/sixties pop thing right now. So I think Stuart Murdoch has to be given more than a little credit for anticipating that general genre change.
I just really liked the overall sound of this album. It didn't change a ton from Belle and Seb. stuff, but where it did, I felt like it was an improvement. I would highly recommend.