Ah, fuck. On Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Belle and Sebastian were just a minute too late. Everyone made a big deal about Reflektor, but Arcade Fire couldn’t groove their way out of a paper bag. Turns out Belle and Sebastian totally can, but if you were to upgrade to plastic, they’d probably be screwed.

I don’t know, then, how much more credit they deserve for Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. One truth is that they obviously fare better giving into their new predilections, as their formers result in just recreating ’90s Belle and Sebastian songs in inferior quality. What happened to their recent rock era? I thought it was pretty good.

The clear best song here is “Perfect Couples,” where Murdoch tears off his proper dress clothes to reveal a dazzling white suit where he fully channels his inner Pet Shop Boys into a New Order. Cuz if you’re gonna reinvent yourself, then you better go all the way. If you don’t, you’re competing against others who were in full passion from the start. Low-end B&S, but not the lowest.

Unfortunately, the owners of B&S’s music failed to upload the album version of “Perfect Couples” to YouTube. Please settle for this extended version.