Storytelling is not quite what it seems. At first sight it looks like a close cousin to Badly Drawn Boy's recent About A Boy, another example of indie stars taking a break from the norm by working on a specially-commissioned soundtrack. Since this one arrives several months after the actual film, however, with only six minutes of its music actually making it to the final take, it makes rather more sense to regard Storytelling as a Belle and Sebastian album proper. And as such it's their most satisfying offering for some time, a collection of shimmering instrumentals and songs whose jaunty exterior belies the drop of poison at the heart of Stuart Murdoch's lyrics. The odd twee moment aside, it's another quiet triumph for the publicity-shy Glaswegians which should do their becalmed reputation no harm at all.

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