3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light

29 June 2006 in Random

Belle and Sebastian’s third and final EP of 1997 is 3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light. The title and the apparently overexposed vacation-style photograph on the cover bring photography and vision to mind. The third and best song on the EP echoes this imagery. “Beautiful” seems like it should be called “They Let Lisa Go Blind” due to the often repeated refrain of the song. It’s a fairly typical Belle and Sebastian song:

If you knew what’s going on in her life
There’d be two hundred troubled teenagers to sit with her
And to talk to her
If you knew what’s going on in her life
What’s going on in her life
What’s going on in her life
There would be a documentary on Radio 4

The first two songs on 3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light are suggestive of left-wing politics without being particularly political songs. “A Century of Fakers” is a far more successful song than “A Century of Elvis,” which shares the same instrumentals. I really like the lyrics to “A Century of Fakers.” Here are the opening lines:

There are people going hungry every day
They’ve got nothing on their plates
And you’re filling your fat face with every different kind of cake
And if you ever go lardy, or go lame
I will drop you straight away
That’s the price you have to pay
For every stupid thing you say

The song is filled with references to anarchists, war, hunger, and loneliness, but it’s about style and resistance to it more than anything else.

“La Pastie De La Bourgeoisie” takes its nonsensical title from graffiti. Its another Belle and Sebastian song about a bookish misfit:

Sunbeam shone, mousy girl on the end pew
You’d stay home, oh if only they let you
Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie

Municipal pool, you’re a junior life saver
But you’re friends are all serious ravers
Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
Reading Judy Blume
But you came too soon

This song doesn’t really say anything about class politics at all.

The final song on the EP, “Put the Book Back on the Shelf” is really catchy and tremendously self referential:

Sebastian you’re in a mess
You had a dream, they called you king
Of all the hipsters, is it true?
Or are you still the queen?

It’s hard not to think of the book referenced in the song as being The State I Am In, but that’s probably adding even more self-referentiality than was intended.

These songs are loosely connected through a shared concern with image both in the sense of eyesight and in the sense of public image. All four songs contribute to the whole, but “Beautiful” is definitely the most essential song of the bunch.