God Help the Girl

Essentially Belle & Sebastian leader Stuart Murdoch, the rest of B&S, and a phalanx of female muse-singers (but mostly obscure Irish vocalist Catherine Ireton), God Help the Girl is one of the odder "side projects" (if it can even be described as such). Formed in 2008 to create music for Murdoch's similarly titled film-in-progress, God Help the Girl takes the basic obtuse storytelling and twee-plus B&S sound and tweaks it into the past, injecting elements of '60s girl groups, Left Banke-esque Baroque pop, lilting chanson, and just a touch of Randy Newman wryness. The centerpiece of Murdoch's creation is a young curiosity-chaser named Eve. While the initial intention was for a rotating cast of Eves recruited by personal ad to voice her, Ireton, a dark and sultry jazz crooner, carries most of the workload on the 2009 self-titled debut, although others, including Smoosh's Asya, drop in when the time beckons.