Belle and Sebastian – How to Solve Our Human Problems, Part 2

Nostalgia sells better than sex in 2018 and Belle and Sebastian/their team have tapped into that 1997 South Park-esque Memberberries feeling and sure are cashing in like gangbusters with this How To Solve Our Human Problems EP trilogy. The first EP installment was an unorganized mess, but it was tasty enough to skate by without many hipsters in suspenders oiling their beards noticing, considering it was made by one of the most talented, albeit overrated, bands in the world.

Part 2 picks up much where Part 1 left off – very lacking. All the same elements and trappings are in play here, but there’s much potential for brilliance. The listener always wants Belle and Sebastian to be great, because they are. They expect them to deliver, and they’re disappointed when they don’t, because Belle and Sebastian have the chops and they posses something that so many other artists don’t – the art of subtlety. Out of the few tracks that could have been great here, there’s only one that really sticks out, and sticks out well, and it just happens to the single, “I’ll Be Your Pilot.” This song is not only a great, well-written song, but most true-blue, old-school Belle and Sebastian fans are going to absolutely love it. It will make them feel tingly, mushy, gross inside, and maybe make them want to cry. It’s straight out of the late 1990s, very Boy With the Arab Strap/If You’re Feeling Sinister. Part 2 is the best-of-breed of the three-EP set.

Belle and Sebastian
How To Solve Our Human Problems, Part 2
[Matador]