God Help The Girl

God Help The Girl is a Stuart Murdoch (leader of Belle & Sebastian) side project. The story goes that during the Dear Catastrophe Waitress tour he decided that the songs he was working on were for female voices, so when the tour was over he decided to put together a project involving a bunch of chick singers. There are several women who sing on the songs produced by this effort, but the primary singer is Catherine Ireton.

God Help The Girl has put out a few singles, a self titled album and an EP called Stills. I have only listened to the full length album. It's a good album with a few great songs, but overall it's a little uneven. Standouts are the title track, Come Monday Night, and Funny Little Frog. Funny Little Frog is actually a Belle & Sebastian song (from The Life Pursuit). It' sung by Brittany Stallings who got the gig by winning some internet based contest that Murdoch held. She's got a great voice, but I like the B&S version of the song more. The backing band on the record is in fact B&S. The music contains a lot of the usual B&S elements (that whole chamber pop sound), but with more of a '60s girl group feel.

All of the women who sing on God Help The Girl have great voices but the real star of the album is Catherine Ireton. Her voice is just outstanding and sounds absolutely perfect on the title track. The low point on the record is the Murdoch sung Pretty Even In The Tub. It seems really out of place among the lush, melodic female vocals that make up most of the record.

Apparently Murdoch has written a film script based on God Help The Girl and filming is suppose to start this year.

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

I don't think Ozzy's voice has ever sounded as good as it does on this record. As well Tony Iommi's guitar work is as good as it gets and pretty much sets the stage for a lot of the heavy metal that came after this album. Listening to this record (as well as the ones in the Sabbath catalog that surround it) one also hears the roots of drone metal. Where would a band like Sunn 0))) be without Master of Reality?


High points on the record are Sweet Leaf, After Forever and Children of The Grave. I love Children of The Grave. With the cheesy whispering at the end I can just picture stoned teenagers listening to it in their wood paneled basements at 2:00am in 1975, plotting a school shooting spree. God, it sounds like it was written just for that demographic. Lord of This World is also a pretty good song, with some of the best guitar work on the album. The songs are very repetitive with lumbering melodies. If we had to pick a Jungian archetype for 70's heavy metal I think that this record would have to be it.

Dr Reverend's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2011 Inductees

Inducted into my Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this day are:

Black Sabbath - How could anyone have a hall of fame without them? And I don't just mean a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but any hall of fame. If I ran a Transportation or Dental Surgeon hall of fame I'd them in there too.

Kraftwerk - If I have to explain this one to you then you just might be a retarded person.

Neil Young - I'm not his biggest fan, he made a few really good records back in the 70s, plus some of the work he did in bands, (which he never seemed to remain in long) like Buffalo Springfield and CSNY was pretty good. He's made records in 5 different decades and continues to be strong influence on modern music.

Ray Charles - This was Skippy's pick. He's a boarder line pick for me, but Skip has so little in his life and I that this will make his year.

Well, that's it for this year. Thanks for reading and I promise to post more in 2011.