Portland writer Emily Kendal Frey released her first poetry collection, The Grief Performance, in 2011 with the Cleveland State Poetry Center, and her latest collection has been highly anticipated. Released with Octopus Books, Sorrow Arrow bears on a similar, yet individual emotion. While she first examined the world of grief, Frey has shifted lenses in order to inspect a different world, that of sorrow. Sorrow Arrow holds what is over 80 poems that are all quite short, but nevertheless offers a daunting emotional load. It’s the classic case of there being so much packed in so little.

Whether it’s statements like, “All night I dreamt of the possibility of dreaming” or “I miss you when it rains and outside of rain,” Frey consistently tailors a contradiction of terms throughout her poems. Such details serve as an invitation for a thorough unpacking, a closer examination of each line. This experience of continual unpacking bears a resemblance to the writing process involved in Frey’s work. As readers track repetition, similes, thematic elements and the like, they become aware of the strives taken by Frey in creating this intricate style of hers.

Frey considers her personal relationships, dissatisfactions, fears and plenty more. Discussing each matter with deep involvement and the occasional playful turn of phrase.

Late in the collection, she writes:

It’s too much

People with their falling down beauty

Their hats at angles

The woman DJ

You stand on some Cheetos

Nobody taught you anything but you kept expanding

Soft as plastic

At first skim, it seems as though Frey is jumping from one context to another, both in an individual poem and in the collection as a whole — first touching on familial relationships, then tapping into her feelings about nature in general (birds, the moon, etc.). After picking up a pen and underlining some lines a second and third time through though, consistent imagery begins to make itself clear. Reoccurring talk of strawberries, arrows, the color green, birds, the moon and so on are revealed to be stringing the entire series of smaller segmented poems together.

Then there are moments where the themes, couplets, and fanciful elements that embody most poetry go unnoticed because of well, frankly, how damn blunt Frey can be:

The first person you loved will die

Their ass will be gone

All of your cats will die and their arrow jaws will break

Come with me

My mother was sad for ten years

The curtains will die

Your giant startling veracity

…

Everyone will die

The wet smoke of night won’t save us

The series of poems bound in the green, skinny cover offer further exploration of our own feelings or a fuller understanding of those who do constantly battle these emotional dilemmas.

Purchase Sorrow Arrow here.

The post ‘Sorrow Arrow’ Review: Emily Kendal Frey explores the world of sorrow in her second poetry collection appeared first on Emerald Media.

“America chugs coffee like Zeus devoured ambrosia: messily, hungrily, knowingly. America tries so hard to impress older Titans.”

Dante Douglas recites his original poetry in a booming baritone, installed confidently behind a microphone, his words emphasized with vitriol.

“With poetry, there’s nothing else on stage,” Douglas said. “It’s a very naked situation.”

He admits he bombed the first time he performed two years ago, but his love of live performance prevented him from shying away from the stage. With a background in stage acting, Douglas found an organic, charismatic transition into slam poetry.

Slam poets often share deeply emotional stories and are required to do so alone on a stage, much like an actor’s soliloquy. Douglas’s theatrical background taught him to project his voice to an audience. Before he began, he warned: “It might get loud.”

“I like people clapping for me,” he said. “Really, in a very shallow way, I like being onstage, I like being a performer and I like being able to show stuff I’ve made.”

Douglas, who is a member of the UO Poetry Slam Team shared original works with Hannah Golden, the co-captain of the team on the evening of March 11 at the opening of the American Pi, a student art exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

“I enjoy getting up onstage and doing the poem and performing it and being all emotionally exhausted afterwards,” Douglas said. “It feels kind of like a blur most of the time you’re on.”

Slam poetry is just one way for creative writers to share their work on campus. The University of Oregon offers inordinate opportunities through clubs, programs and publications for all creative writers to home in their natural talent and share their stuff in a like-minded community.

Let’s break down the creative writing options at the UO:

1.  UO Poetry Slam Team

The UO Poetry Slam Team, which was formed within the last year, seeks to develop a collaborative community on campus for all students with a shared excitement for slam poetry. The team, led by co-captains Golden and Alex Dang, will compete at College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, a national competition from March 25–28, 2015 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. The team regularly hosts open mic events and writing workshops on campus.

“We’re not just a team, we’re also a community and a club,” Golden said. “We really want to invite other people to come and participate. If you’ve never written a word of poetry in your life, you’re an ideal candidate. If you’ve written poetry for five years, you’re also an ideal candidate.”

Whether you want to audition to be on the team or simply refine your public speaking skills, the UO Poetry Slam Team offers an opportunity for all student-poets. The team’s coach, Dr. Corbett Upton from the English department, said that the team “works a lot to foster the community and on their own craft.”

Just earlier this week, the team released its winter 2015 collection – a 45-page booklet of original poems by this year’s team members. A copy can be purchased for $8, cash or check, via the team’s Facebook page or in the main English department office, 118 PLC. Proceeds will endorse the team’s trip to CUPSI.

     2. The Kidd Tutorial program 

UO students can enroll in the creative writing minor, which requires 24 credits. Advanced students can apply for the Kidd Tutorial program. Through this one-year immersion course, students choose their writing emphasis, whether it’s in fiction or poetry. Five to 12 undergraduate students are assigned to work alongside one graduate student with corresponding interests. If fiction writing is your focus, for example, you would be paired accordingly with a graduate student with the same emphasis.

“All the students in the Kidd Tutorial attend talks aimed specifically toward our undergraduate creative writing students by our visiting poets and fiction writers who take part in our annual reading series,” said Daniel Anderson, assistant professor from the creative writing department. “We have small class sizes and a very close-knit community of students who get to know one another quite well.”

Application season for the program runs roughly between week 10 of winter term through week 2 of spring term of each year. More information can be found at http://crwr.uoregon.edu/undergraduates/the-kidd-tutorial.

    3. An Unbound Collection

Unbound is an online literary arts magazine produced by UO students that publishes undergraduate and graduate student-submitted work in literature, poetry and visual art. Unbound started in 2008 as a Robert D. Clark Honors College thesis project. Online issues for Unbound have been published every fall, winter and spring term since spring 2008. This year, a print issue has been published each term.

“Uneven,” a short fiction piece written by Maddie Dunkelberg, was published with Unbound in its “Collection of Works from 2013-14″ issue. This is only one of the 15 works published in the edition that serves as a great addition to any assortment of your coffee table literature. Dunkelberg, whose piece was published in a recent Unbound issue, reflects on her submitting work to Unbound:

“I really wanted to write, but I had no faith in my writing, so when it got accepted, I felt so good,” said Dunkelberg.

She adds that, since publication, she has tailored her focus in playwriting through the theatre arts department and screenwriting through the cinema studies program. “That’s the cool thing about Unbound, that they’ll take pieces from all kinds of students.”

The next issue comes out finals week of winter term. Dates for the next round of submissions hasn’t been decided yet, but can be found online at a later date. Submission guidelines can be found on Unbound‘s website, and original literature or visual art can be sent to unboundlitstaff@gmail.com.

The post Interested in creative writing? Here’s how to get involved at the University of Oregon appeared first on Emerald Media.

Following last year’s release of Lousy With Sylvianbriar, Of Montreal released Aureate Gloom on Mar. 3 this year. As usual, the band went in a new direction with this latest release, making it difficult to see the album as being bound up in a single genre. Instead, the sound may be better understand as an imaginative mixture of the genres it has explored thus far – psychedelic pop, electronica, funk, 60’s vaudeville and certainly more.

In a Stereogum interview, Of Montreal’s frontman-songwriter-linguist Kevin Barnes explains the album’s title, “Aureate means something ornamental. It would be used more to describe something beautiful. So it’s kind of a juxtaposition of the two extremes: An aureate gloom would be a sort of aesthetically interesting or beautiful ugliness, if that is possible — a sort of beautiful misery or something.” The thoughtfulness behind the title is a smaller scale example of the most interesting aspect of the group’s music, namely its prosaic lyrics.

To that end, looking all the way back to the band’s earliest albums, like 1997’s The Bird Who Continues To Eat The Rabbit’s Flower, the provocativeness and level of lyrical engagement certainly has not downgraded over the years. For those who haven’t continuously followed the band through every record release, it may be the only consistency that Of Montreal offers.

The album opens with the track “Bassem Sabry,” which is easily one of the best tracks. The vocals in some tunes are more agitating than others; Barnes gets carried away with the sassy (and oftentimes whiny) vocals, but “Bassem Sabry” gets the best of the band’s sassy double-edged sword. “I just watched my hero fail / Now I’m in a dark and violent funk,” Barnes sings in the upbeat chorus. The gloom of the lyrics opposes the instrumental grooviness – tenderly played strings, funky drums / guitar, and a call-and-response in vocals. This ties back perfectly to Barnes’ juxtaposition with the title Aureate Gloom and rounds out the album’s kind of oxymoronic theme.

Of Montreal is currently on tour, likely playing a greater amount of songs from their two most recent albums. Tour dates can be found on its website.

Aureate Gloom:

1. Bassem Sabry

2. Last Rites At The Jane Hotel

3. Empyrean Abbatoir

4. Aluminum Crown

5. Virgillian Lots

6. Monolithic Egress

7. Apollyon Of Blue Room

8. Estocadas

9. Chthonian Dirge For Uruk The Other

10. Like Ashoka’s Inferno of Memory

The post Review: Of Montreal’s ‘Aureate Gloom’ carries provocative lyrics with an oxymoronic theme appeared first on Emerald Media.

“I Loved You More,” written by author Tom Spanbauer, is a sprawling novel of relationships, a love triangle, disease and unrequited love, told in rich prose over several decades and from across the country.

The Emerald recently spoke with author Tom Spanbauer about his book “I Loved You More” (published by Portland-based independent literary press Hawthorne Books).

—

Ghoncheh Azadeh: Was there a specific experience that drove you to write? 

Tom Spanbauer: I started writing when I was just a kid. In the eighth grade I won a contest for writing an essay on John Barry, father of the American Navy. I was always a strange kid, off to myself. I lived in a Mormon community and was the target of many a bully. I really couldn’t relate to much in my life other than school. As I got older, I wrote poetry, bad poetry, mostly as a way to communicate with myself. Because it seemed that there was nobody in the world like me, I created another persona within my diaries. And that persona was my friend. Somebody outside me who could accompany me.

GA: I’ve read about your teaching of the technique “Dangerous Writing” in Portland. You define it on your website as “the act of overcoming fear to write painful personal truths.” Has your understanding of Dangerous Writing changed over the years? 

TS: Dangerous Writing is in constant flux. It started out with a lot of influence from Gordon Lish, but soon turned into its own entity. Now, there is so much more emphasis on how to structure a scene; that is, how can the first person present the story from within the story while at the same time be outside the story telling it at the same time.

The premise of Dangerous Writing is still going to the sore, sad, secret place and investigating it fiercely.  The other basic part of Dangerous Writing is developing the art of pay close attention to your sentences. In a way, it’s like treating prose like poetry.

GA: Can you offer some examples of activities you engage students in to develop this skill?

TS: Mostly it’s sitting down with a student and going over his or her pages again and again. Some people, years later, are still writing on the first pages they brought in to class. What we’re searching for is the inherent music within the student. The “sound” that he or she has.

GA: Although Dangerous Writing seems to imply that a writer shouldn’t separate themselves from their work, are there exceptions that you can think of and consider when writing?

TS: My teacher always said that fiction is the lie that tells the truth truer. I use the example of Francis Bacon; he always paints from a photograph. So Bacon takes a photograph of the pope and then turns it into a “bizarre” screaming pope. So by comparison the fiction writer may go to his own secret place, but he or she has permission to lie and turn the photograph of the pope into a painting that is more representational of the pope.

GA: The idea of being a writer has typically been viewed as a romantic or idealistic idea to individuals. How did you wind up being successful on this path?

TS: I’ve come to define a writer as one who continues on writing and keeps his or her self-respect despite being ignored by the very people he or she most wants to notice them.

The post Q&A: Portland author Tom Spanbauer on writing, teaching and his latest novel ‘I Loved You More’ appeared first on Emerald Media.

Things in the world are just things. Your house, your table, your notebook, your computer, your bed, your toothbrush. Your clothes, your shoes, your socks, your car. Food. They have a life of their own unconnected to you. It’s as if you’re already dead and the world does not recognize you. And something even more. Because the things in the world don’t recognize you, because your world isn’t your world anymore, is just the world, instead of the familiar connection, you feel the empty place where you used to be connected, and without that connection, the way you’re floating, things appear to you as having an energy barrier around them. And the energy of that barrier is a whole new weird deep anxiety. (from Tom Spanbauer’s “I Loved You More” pg. 293)

This piece of prose can be divided into so many parts and yet, it in some way captures the experience of reading “I Loved You More.” Typically, when you enter a novel that entrances you with “your world isn’t your world anymore,” you take on a perspective through the eyes of the narrator. There’s an extra element with Tom Spanbauer‘s novel, however. You don’t just remove yourself from the context of reality and insert yourself within another, fictional context. Rather, there is an impressively “familiar connection” pre-established by Spanbauer’s sensitive humanizing of the lead characters.

“I Loved You More” holds within it 25 years worth of heartache. The technique of Dangerous Writing seems to be the culprit for this. This is a style that Spanbauer developed and now teaches in Portland, Oregon. Dangerous Writing “focuses on a minimalistic style and ‘writing from the body,’ the act of overcoming fear to write painful personal truths.” Spanbauer, who graduated from Columbia University in 1988 with an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree in Fiction, clearly takes on this technique to overcome emotion in his own works.

Multiple strands of themes come together and back apart throughout the novel, and oftentimes overlap with one another. Themes of love, fear, sexuality, and desire are explored in a personal, accessible manner. For instance, the main character and narrator of the story, Ben “Gruney” Grunewald carries a “Big Ben vs. Little Ben” complex in which he calls on Big Ben for acts of courage and finds himself emotionally crippled, and often weeping, when he is in the state of “Little Ben.” This complex reveals itself in Ben’s inner-monologue throughout the entirety of the novel and gives us insight into how he is feeling, depending on which persona he takes on in that moment.

The first part of the book takes place in New York City during the eighties. Ben is a student at Columbia taking a most notable course taught by a professor only ever referred to as Jeske. It’s in this class that Ben meets and falls for the class hot-shot, Hank. The first time Hank speaks in class, Ben experiences “some kind of frenzy in [his] heart.” The two find deep appreciation for one another’s work and eventually form a strong friendship. The constant underlying tension in this friendship being that Ben is hopelessly in love with Hank, who is heterosexual. Moreover, the intense passion in their friendship makes it all the more difficult to let go of such a feeling.

The second half of the book takes place in Portland, Oregon more than 10 years later. By then, Ben and Hank have fallen out of touch. Ben has been diagnosed with AIDS and Hank, on the other hand, has been diagnosed with cancer. It is during this time that Ben is taken care of and loved by Ruth, a beautiful, red-headed student of his. Ruth loves Ben the way that Ben loved Hank. She stays by his side through all the doctors visits and the whole ordeal. Eventually, Ben finds that he does in fact love her back. It’s after two years of Ben and Ruth struggling to maintain a healthy relationship that Hank comes back into the picture. Hank and Ben exchange their first phone call in years, exchange the news of their respective illnesses. Hank flies down to Oregon for a visit, during which time Ben introduces Hank to Ruth. As simple as that, a love triangle is formed. Ruth and Hank eventually get married and, consequently, it’s Ben who loses two of the loves of his life. He is left with no invitation to the wedding, and no closure.

Spanbauer suggests:

When you say goodbye to someone you love, maybe if you say something crazy, something true, maybe he won’t stop loving you.

As a person who is deeply invested in his relationships, Ben constantly falls. And when he falls, he falls hard. This is part of the humanizing that Spanbauer puts to work within I Loved You More. Other than moments where Big Ben makes an appearance, we don’t see consistent acts of heroism, which is almost unconsciously expected in novels classified as romantic fiction. The portrayal of attempting to maintain someone’s love in a final encounter is overbearingly visceral and relatable.

I Loved You More – the title alone implies the experience of painful, unattainable desires. All things considered, Spanbauer strongly humanizes deep emotions that are more or less considered obsessive, and as such, embarrassing. The book lends the understanding that the hurt that comes with love, passion, and the like, is entirely human.

Back in 2006, the San Francisco indie group originally known as Dodobird put out its first, self-released album, Beware of the Maniacs. With its sixth album release to date, the group better known as The Dodos, consisting of members Meric Long and Logan Kroeber, are getting ready to begin a long tour to promote their latest release on February 10 in their home state of California.

In Individ, The Dodos get grounded deep in their roots, honing in a distinct call-and-response design between Long’s intricate guitar fingerpicking, whether acoustic or electric, and Kroeber’s unorthodox, but astonishingly innovative fashion of emphasizing the underrated features of a drum set. By removing the bass drum, and instead tampering with the rims of the drums as well as taping a tambourine to his shoe, Kroeber shows control over these easily overlooked elements. While the detailed guitar playing is arguably an equally crucial component of the duo’s imaginative tinkering, it’s the percussion element that is more demanding of recognition.

Any listener who has stuck around will appreciate where the duo lands with its sound. While it wouldn’t be at all fair to say The Dodos are making a return to their primary sound (since they never quite left, but merely experimented), it might be fair to suggest that Individ serves as a counterpart, a parallel to 2008′s Visitor. Similar to past works, the sharp instrumentalists’ back-and-forth creates a beautifully tangled sound that catches one in an emotional opposition between the feeling of a tireless passion and the blatant overcoming of said passion.

Further, the sound is easily complimented by string instruments whether it be in a full orchestra or an accompaniment (which, in fact, has been the case a number of times). This speaks to the members’ precision and likeness to the plucking of a string instrument. It’s the deliberate speed of the intricacy that warrants listens upon listens, just as any orchestral composition might.

 The album’s final track, “Pattern/Shadow” depicts a haunting picture that seems like a convoluted mess. Long sings, “I cannot predict / All your patterns / You blew us away / And I could not escape.” The evasive lyrics layer on the trouble by endlessly repeating in an alternating fashion “Your pattern” followed by “Your shadow” in what is almost a hushed calling, a hither forth.

All the fast-paced fingerpicking wants nothing more than head-bobbing with a leftover feeling of dizziness. Track 6 “Goodbyes and Endings” is in keeping with this aura and a personal favorite off the record. So the elegantly figurative chorus goes: “And if I cannot be still / Would you be alone? / Would you care? / Could it be enough / If I learned how to turn it off?” Long’s verses artfully and imaginatively edge on poetry, albeit with a careful approach. And this may even make the words carry a mindful honesty. Maybe it’s just that I haven’t been this taken by an album in some time, but while I was on the verge of jotting these lyrics down somewhere, I had the thought that this vibrant album would be suitable for listening to while painting feverishly.

A brief final note: “Bubbles,” track three, ironically begins by asking: “Is this too much for you?” right about when you will contemplate if this well-crafted album is simply going to be too much to take in for a single sitting.

Individ:

1. Precipitation
2. The Tide
3. Bubble
4. Competition
5. Darkness
6. Goodbyes and Endings
7. Retriever
8. Bastard
9. Pattern/Shadow

For decades, Belle & Sebastian have sustained an effortless quality which carried us through the tunes with ease, despite the more suggestive, telling lyrics that are artfully weaved in with the instrumentation. The band’s first album since 2010′s Write About Love, titled Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance, was released on Jan. 20 by Matador Records. What’s noteworthy: the record was mixed by Ben H. Allen III, known for his collaboration with Animal Collective and Gnarls Barkley. And this was certainly our beloved Belle & Sebastian’s most upbeat, disco-ish release, calling on its cult of dedicated fans to open up to a fresh mood. Perhaps it’s too cliché, but hell, sometimes change can be a good thing, and this is one of those times! All fans should go with the band’s recent movement and dance along!

All the same, it isn’t too surprising that everyone isn’t a fan of this new front. Consequence of Sound writer Josh Terry gave the album a C+ rating and stated, “The band manages to blend their signature brand of subdued indie pop with new, bombastic disco cuts, but sometimes the disparity can be jarring.”

Granted this mood alteration can be shocking compared to the specific mood to which fans were accustomed, but this exploration is more refreshing than anything else. It’s less of an introspection, which their long line of albums until now have offered, but more of a “call to the dance floor,” as Terry deems it. After all, we can’t spend the entirety of our lives trapped in thought, since Murdoch sings, “The tricks in your head are a lie,” on the album’s second track, “Allie.”

Though the band’s founder Stuart Murdoch is seen as the glue that keeps the ensemble functioning, and perhaps more importantly, relevant, he takes the backseat for several tunes on this record. Instead, we find other members of the band taking on lead vocals. My favorite of these younger vocalists being Stevie Jackson, who sings “Perfect Couples.” The playful bopping around of a synth pad draws us into the lighthearted tune, which clocks in at five minutes and 29 seconds. Jackson repeatedly recites the line, “Perfect couples are breaking up!” before and after curious comments as to why he can’t be like them. Back in October 2014 at their L.A. performance, the band teased their release of Girls in Peacetime with this upbeat head-bopper. The energy offered up by Jackson’s live performance of this particular tune speaks to the strength of each individual member of the band and maybe even more so to their collective growth.

Impressively, the courageous acts of taking on a new sound and varying lead vocalists aren’t the only new features here; this also marks Belle and Sebastian’s first blatant take on a political theme. This is most present in “Allie,” in which Murdoch sings: “When there’s bombs in the Middle East / You want to hurt yourself / When there’s knives in the city streets / You want to end yourself.” Rather than leaving it to the listeners to decipher, the group daringly makes their views apparent in an obvious manner.

With nine studio albums in total, Belle & Sebastian turn their attention to different genres. With Girls in Peacetime, the group emphasizes its newfound appreciation of dance and disco music. It’s a testament to the band’s timelessness and ability to expand their musical horizons. If you aren’t already convinced that you should purchase this album, you can listen to the album for free on NPR’s First Listen beforehand.

Tickets for Belle & Sebastian’s tour dates can be found on its website. The band is performing at a number of venues in the West Coast this go-around, such as Seattle, Washington; Berkeley, California and Portland, Oregon to list just a few. They’ve expressed their eagerness to perform on their website when mentioning that these West Coast visits are long overdue.

Streams of the classic Belle & Sebastian sound blend with the new; and although we got a slight taste of the band’s upbeat nature with 2003′s Dear Catastrophe Waitress, it is nothing like the blatant command to set your worries aside that is felt in Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.

Track listing:

1. “Nobody’s Empire” 5:08

2. “Allie” 3:16

3. “The Party Line” 4:14

4. “The Power of Three” (Sarah Martin on lead vocals) 3:57

5. “The Cat with the Cream” 5:17

6. “Enter Sylvia Plath” 6:48

7. “The Everlasting Muse” 5:25

8. “Perfect Couples” (Stevie Jackson on lead vocals) 5:29

9. “Ever Had a Little Faith?” 4:21

10. “Play for Today” (Featuring Dee Dee Penny) 7:33

11. “The Book of You” (Sarah Martin on lead vocals) 4:23

12. “Today (This Army’s for Peace)” 5:25

For decades, Belle & Sebastian sustain an effortless quality, carrying us through its tunes with ease, despite its more suggestive, telling lyrics that weave together with the instrumentation artfully. The band’s first album since 2010′s Write About Love, is titled Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance, was released on January 20 via Matador Records. Also noteworthy: the record is mixed by Ben H. Allen III, known for his collaboration with Animal Collective and Gnarls Barkley. This is certainly our beloved Belle & Sebastian’s most upbeat, disco-ish release, which calls on its cult of dedicated fans to open up to a fresh mood. Perhaps it’s too cliché, but hell, sometimes change can be a good thing, and this is one of those times! All fans should go with the band’s recent movement and dance along!

All the same, it isn’t too surprising that everyone isn’t a fan of this new front. Consequence of Sound writer Josh Terry gave the album a C+ rating and stated “The band manages to blend their signature brand of subdued indie pop with new, bombastic disco cuts, but sometimes the disparity can be jarring.”

Granted that this mood alteration can be a shocking compared to the specific mood to which fans are accustomed, this exploration is more refreshing over and above anything else. It’s less of an introspection, or introverted experience, which their long line of albums up until now have offered, but more of a “call to the dance floor,” as Terry deems it. After all, we mustn’t spend the entirety of our lives trapped in thought, since Murdoch sings, “The tricks in your head are a lie,” as recited in the album’s second track, “Allie.”

Though the band’s founder Stuart Murdoch is seen as the glue that keeps the ensemble functioning on such a successful level and perhaps more importantly, seen as keeping the group relevant, he takes the backseat for several tunes on this record. Instead, we find other members of the band taking on lead vocals. My favorite of these younger vocalists being Stevie Jackson, who sings “Perfect Couples,” which clocks in at 5 minutes and 25 seconds. The playful bopping around of a synth pad draws us into the lighthearted tune. Jackson repeatedly recites the line, “Perfect couples are breaking up!” before and after curious comments regarding why he can’t be like them. Back in Oct. 2014 at their L.A. performance, the band teased their release of Girls in Peacetime with this upbeat head-bopper. The energy offered up by Jackson’s live performance of this particular tune speaks to the strength of each individual member of the band and maybe even more so to their collective growth.

Impressively, the courageous act of taking on a new sound and varying lead vocalists aren’t the only new features here; this also marks Belle and Sebastian’s first political album. (Just look at the title!) The band’s political dispositions are most predominant in “Allie,” in which Murdoch notes: “When there’s bombs in the Middle East / You want to hurt yourself / When there’s knives in the city streets / You want to end yourself.” Rather than leaving it to the listeners to decipher, the group daringly makes their views apparent in an obvious manner.

With 9 studio albums in total, Belle & Sebastian turn their attention to different genres. With Girls in Peacetime, the group emphasizes its newfound consideration of dance and disco music. It’s a testament to the band’s timelessness and ability to expand their musical horizons. If you aren’t already convinced that you should purchase this album, you can listen to the album for free on NPR’s First Listen beforehand.

Tickets for Belle & Sebastian’s tour dates can be found on its website. The band is performing at a number of venues in the West Coast this go-around, such as Seattle, WA; Berkeley, CA; and Portland, OR to list just a few. They’ve expressed their eagerness to perform on their website when mentioning that these West Coast visits are long overdue.

Streams of the classic Belle & Sebastian sound blend with the new; and although we got a slight taste of the band’s upbeat nature with 2003′s Dear Catastrophe Waitress, it is nothing like the blatant command to set your worries aside that is felt in Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.

Track listing:

1. “Nobody’s Empire” 5:08
2. “Allie” 3:16
3. “The Party Line” 4:14
4. “The Power of Three ” (Sarah Martin on lead vocals) 3:57
5. “The Cat with the Cream” 5:17
6. “Enter Sylvia Plath” 6:48
7. “The Everlasting Muse” 5:25
8. “Perfect Couples” (Stevie Jackson on lead vocals) 5:29
9. “Ever Had a Little Faith?” 4:21
10. “Play for Today” (Featuring Dee Dee Penny) 7:33
11. “The Book of You” (Sarah Martin on lead vocals) 4:23
12. “Today (This Army’s for Peace)” 5:25

Next week, the Hult Center for the Performing Arts (1 Eugene Center) is hosting a performance by the Eugene Symphony followed by discussions with music director Danail Rachev and the week’s featured guest artist. The show’s free-of-charge preview starts at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22. The main performance, presented by the Eugene Symphony with master saxophonist Branford Marsalis, starts at 8 p.m. the same night. Tickets for the main performance start at $40 and can be found on the Hult Center’s website.

As listed on the Hult Center’s website, the program list includes four pieces, which will be performed by the Eugene Symphony with guest saxophonist Marsalis. Surely the high energy of these compositions will keep the audience light on their feet. The four pieces and their respective composers include:

Jacques Ibert: Concertino da Camera for Alto Saxophone
John Harbison: Remembering Gatsby
John Williams: Escapades for Alto Saxophone
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Whether you wind up sitting up in the balcony or in the mezzanine somewhere, this event serves as a brilliant opportunity to have a personal, jazz-heavy night of ease or a chance to take a group of friends and get involved with art. These performers work tirelessly through weekly rehearsals with hours of personal practice. This is an utterly convincing argument that this showcase is one worth catching, especially for its emphasis on jazz music on this particular evening.