Seven albums in and Belle and Sebastian have just made the best record of their career. Most people may think they've got them pegged as fey cuties, but the band have cut the feet out from under everyone with a record of startling clarity, accomplishment and impact. 'The Life Pursuit' is nothing short of a revelation. produced by Tony Hoffer, this album feels both familiar and strange at the same time. There is a powerful aesthetic at the heart of 'The Life Pursuit' that places it at some time in the early-to-middle seventies without ever specifically sounding like anything you can put your finger on. it is more 'muscular' than previous Belle and Sebastian albums - and there is a gravitation towards a liver, beatier sound - but unlike any of their peers, it is impossible to reduce their influences to a few key sources. Belle and Sebastian pull in stuff from all over the place, so that Sly and the Family Stone / Funkadelic inflections ('Song for Sunshine') sits side by side with the classic bubblegum riffs and call-and-response vocals of 'White Collar Boy' (another sure-fire stomping single); the 'queen bitch'-era Bowie stylings of 'Sukie in the Graveyard'; the glammy T-Rex of 'The Blues are Still Blue'; the prime-time miserablism of a Terry Hall (mornington crescent) and the irrepressible rousing piano drive of 'The Price of a cup of Tea'. It also includes the impossibly perfect slice of motown-pop in the name of lead single 'Funny Little Frog'. LP - Double LP.