I'm Waking Up to Us [CD-single] [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
Their Second EP of 2001. The Title Track was Produced by Mike Hurst (Pet Clark's "Downtown").

Tracks:

I'm Waking Up To Us
I Love My Car
Marx and Engels

Album Description

Second of 2 new E.P.'s contains 3 songs and will be released on CD5, 12 inch & 7 inch. Tracks for all 3 formats - 'I'm Waking Up To Us', 'I Love My Car' & 'Marx and Engles. None of these tracks will be on upcoming album. From Matador Records.

Customer Reviews:

I'm Waking Up To Forever Changes.......2004-09-11

At one time I was quick to defend Belle and Sebastian and their pretty and melodic 60's influenced sound, and I still admit that "If You're Feeling Sinister" is a fantastic album in much need of praise and admiration. Ripping into these scottish kids is like beating a maudlin introspective E.T. with his own tear stained diary. After this and "Jonathan David" however, I've come to one conclusion.
E.T. has had it coming a long time now.
This song is a ill conceived homage to "Forever Changes" by Love. Following the single, "Jonathan David" a sad knock off of "Odessey and Oracle" by the Zombies I start to question the significance of Belle and Sebastian. What are they now but mere caricatures of the music they listen to? What do they spend their time doing now?
9:00am Write in tear stained diary
10:00am Go to record store. Buy every record from 1965-1969
11:00am Volunteer for the Nick Drake Murder Conspiracy Foundation
12:00pm Quick lunch
12:30pm Copy lyrics of songs that made me cry into my diary
1:30pm Record music
I'm all for the worship of music, and I came to love Belle and Sebastian myself through my love for the same music they are currently knocking off, but there's a fine line between influence and flat out knock off.
I recomend that these scotts run out and buy themselves a copy of "Metal Machine Music" or SOMETHING to break them out of this deep rut of a career.

LOVE EVERY SONG.......2003-11-21

Great single/EP... one of their best, I think. I'm Waking Up to Us is fantastic. I Love My Car is a great shift for them musically. Marx & Engles, classic B&S lyrics. I HIGHLY recomend this. A MUST have for a B&S fan or for anyone genuinly interested in getting into them. Why take an SSRI when you have new B&S to listen to?

Absolutely essential.......2003-10-12

This EP packs more gorgeous harmony, lush instrumentation and charming lyrics into its 10 short minutes than most bands manage in a full album, if ever.

"Waking Up To Us" sounds a bit like a lost Roy Orbison/Phil Spector tune from the 60's, with its rich orchestration and Stuart's heart-thumping-on-sleeve vocal delivery. It's full of wonderful violin and oboe counter-melodies, and it wins my award for Best Use Of Bassoon In A Rock Song.

What if the Squirrel Nut Zippers covered the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows?" The result might sound a lot like "I Love My Car." I can't get its bouncy, swaggering horn melody out of my head. More wonderful, inscrutable Stuart lyrics here: "I love the rat who lives under the floor and makes his bed from novelettes." He's got triple the imagination of most songwriters.

"Marx and Engels" could hold its own with the best of "If You're Feeling Sinister." It's a warm, gentle piano tune, in which our hero's advances are rebuffed by that cute Communist Manifesto-reading riot grrl in the local laundrette.

I feel like all the previous B&S albums have been building toward this point. It's relaxed, whimsical, intimate and rich. You won't want to do without this disc.

How Could it Be Any Less Than 5 Stars?.......2003-06-25

It's Belle & Sebastian... Need I say more?

...and if I do, than you're just not listening enough!

in defense of i love my car.......2003-03-03

This is a great EP, and I agree with most of the reviews here. It starts off with "I'm Waking Up To Us" which is a song about the since departed and beautiful Isobel Campbell. As good as this song it, it is the third best song of a three-EP set. The second song "I Love My Car" has had pretty negative reviews here, but a song with a new orleans clarinet laden jazz bridge and daft lyrics with a nod to the Beach Boys and namely the rift between Mike Love and Brian Wilson (I love my Carl/I love my Brian/my Dennis and my Al/I could even find it in my heart to love Mike Love) has to be brilliant. "Marx and Engels" sounds like it could come straight from "If You're Feeling Sinister" but the sound is a little cleaner, although I think the weakest lyrically. The brilliance of the song still comes with Stu's arrangements and Isobel's countermelody which is actually a criticism of Karl Marx and Robert Engels (assumedly she is voicing the girl whom Stuart is talking about) shows the subtle brilliance one of the best contemporary bands.