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.