![\"sivu\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.towleroad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/sivu.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis week in New Music:\u00a0Sivu<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s (above) sophomore album is sweet, experimental and beguiling; Belle & Sebastian<\/strong> somehow continue to remain relevant; and\u00a0St. Vincent<\/strong><\/a> offers a beautiful, straightforward ballad on \u201cNew York\u201d.<\/p>\n Sivu \u2013 <\/b>Sweet Sweet Silent<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Follow-up album <\/span>Sweet Sweet Silent<\/span><\/i> essentially follows the template set up in 2014 but there\u2019s more willingness to experiment. <\/span><\/p>\n Page\u2019s voice is his main weapon, a quavering, gentle instrument that belies the serious content of much of the album. Between the threatening sounds of songs like \u201cLonesome\u201d you\u2019ll also find a bombastic chorus on \u201cFlies\u201d and acoustic love songs like \u201cMy Moon River.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Belle and Sebastian \u2013 \u201cWe Were Beautiful\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Their latest track \u201cWe Were Beautiful\u201d is more uptempo than a lot of their previous work but the overall effect is unmistakably due to the band\u2019s self production and Stuart Murdoch\u2019s still remarkably lovely voice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n St. Vincent \u2013 \u201cNew York\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n However, on her latest track \u201cNew York\u201d Clark\u2019s songwriting and wonderful voice come to the fore in a ballad.<\/span><\/p>\n Fans will wonder to whom she is referring when she sings \u201cI have lost a hero, I have lost a friend, but for you darling I\u2019d do it all again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She could be singing to Cara Delevingne but as much she could be concerned with New York or her guitar or who knows what. Either way, if you\u2019re alive she\u2019ll be singing to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The post NEW MUSIC: Sivu, Belle and Sebastian, St. Vincent<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Sivu<\/b>, aka James Page, showed great potential on his debut album <\/span>Something On High<\/span><\/i>. Songs on that album suggested comparisons with the likes of <\/span>Mick Flannery<\/b> on \u201cLove Lives In This House\u201d while \u201cMiracle (Human Error)\u201d recalled the best of late 80s and early 90s indie pop. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Scotland\u2019s twee pop mainstay <\/span>Belle & Sebastian<\/b> are remarkable for two reasons \u2013 they are still around after more than 20 years and almost as many albums and they have remained relevant while always sounding more or less the same.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>On her last self-titled breakthrough album, <\/span>St. Vincent<\/b> aka Annie Clark was submerged in production and surrounded by performance whenever she ventured out of doors. That\u2019s not a criticism. Clark is rarely less than inventive and generally excellent both recorded and live<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n