Stuart Murdoch of Scottish indie band Belle & Sebastian is the man behind the scenes of the project God Help The Girl. While writing the songs for the B&S album Dear Catastrophe Waitress, he got inspiration for a song that did not suit his band. Murdoch put the song aside, worked on it from time to time and wrote a few more similar songs. After a while the idea began to take hold of an album
… with these songs under a different name, albeit with members of B&S, but supplemented by guest singers and singers. For example, Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Asya (Smoosh) contributed. Mick Cooke provided the orchestral arrangements. Murdoch's hand can be recognized in the neat texts and his preference for out-of-favor, somewhat matured styles. Catherine Ierton's pure girl voices, Brittany Stallings and Dina Bankole, who were found after auditioning, give the music an even more innocent character. It resulted in a nice style exercise in classic pop. If Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka ever get cool again, they owe it to Stuart Murdoch. (MS)more