Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch, for all his incomparable pop songwriting genius, is a pretty down-to-earth guy. He goes about a project much like you or I... he (1) comes up with an idea for a girl-group musical film, (2) starts working on the screenplay, (3) gets a bunch of girls to audition for the lead role, (4) records an album's worth of songs and (5) is sort of gradually working on the actual movie, which may or may not come out in the next year or so. Pretty much like how the rest of us disorganized schemers would handle it. So this is the pre-movie soundtrack for God Help the Girl, featuring some fabulous sha-la-la Dusty Springfield style soul, sung by the various contest winners (who sent in videos of themselves singing Belle & Sebastian songs), orchestration and guest vocals by the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon. It's some of Stu's best, most energetic work yet, with lovely vocals from Catherine Ireton. And maybe someday he'll get around to making the darn movie...