Belle And Sebastian – “The Party Line (Tomas Barfod Remix)”
Belle And Sebastian were one of the indie-pop staples that helped define my high school and college years, but I didn’t get the chance to see them live until I covered a music festival in Mexico City last fall. Since they had just announced their first new album in nearly half a decade, Belle And Sebastian mostly played new songs from that then-forthcoming record, Girls In Wartime Want To Dance. They worked great for a daytime festival setting, but the Tomas Barfod remix of “The Party Line” might be the first time a Belle And Sebastian song is perfectly suited to a club. Barfod slows things way down to a glacial pace, freezing out the handclaps and jumpy synths until all we’re left with is a cold, clean danceable track. Even Stuart Murdoch’s chirpy, friendly voice gets the a slight, electronic twist, transforming him from talkative narrator into a suave, smooth-talking stranger. Listen.
Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance is now via Matador.