I have to tell you, I was more than a little weirded out when back in 2003, Belle & Sebastian brought Trevor Horn (The Buggles) on to produce their album Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I was even more weirded out by the fact B & S all but abandoned their trademark sad-sack demeanor for an approach far more sunny and light - especially when you factored-in the recent departures of band mainstays Isobel Campbell and Stuart David. While I did think that Dear Catastrophe Waitress was enjoyable, it still sounded to me like a band in full transition mode. Experimenting with different approaches, not only tinkering-with, but practically replacing the style and sound (quaint British bookworm pop) that they were almost entirely responsible for inventing.

Fast-forward three years and Trevor Horn has stepped aside for Tony Hoffer, a British Indie-Rock super producer of sorts (Supergrass, Air, Idlewild), who's also helped with production work for Beck a couple of times. And what a fit Hoffer is - what didn't sound fully realized three years ago, has gelled into a band that sounds fully confident in bringing together a 70's AM radio kind of sound. Old fans of the introverted and introspective B & S may be turned off by this sort of out-of-the-shadows gallivanting, but now that I'm used to it, I've gotta say I'm all for it.

Ringleader Stuart Murdoch seems more comfortable than ever up front, and his voice soars amid these rays of sunshine. "The Blues Are Still Blue" sounds like a mix of T.Rex vocals blended together with ? & the Mysterians "96 Tears" style organs, while the organ work on "Song For Sunshine" recalls vintage Bill Withers era material. Songs like "Another Sunny Day" and "We Are the Sleepyheads" demonstrate how far Stevie Jackson has come as a guitar player. It's as though he's just coming into his own the way he commandeers a song with his sure-fingered, but tasteful electric guitar stylings - exuding an almost Mark Knopfler-like confidence.

It's funny that an album like this released in the dead of Winter can coax rays of Summer sunshine to blast from the speakers. When it finally warms up, this is gonna be the kind of album that you'll wanna blast with the windows open and the top down, I guarantee it.