If Step Into My Office, Baby was a jolt to the system for Belle & Sebastian followers - and made you think you'd put the wrong CD into the player - wait 'til you hear Your Cover's Blown. It's dynamite.
Kicking off with fast Eastern-influenced descending scales and ringing telephones, it develops with choppy guitars into an irresistible, buzzy upbeat song. Stuart Murdoch's voice even sounds almost macho. And that's just the edit: the full six-minute version is even better.
The two versions are wrapped around - hardly a coincidence, all this bookish language - Wrapped Up In Books, one of the best tracks from Dear Catastrophe Waitress, a song that takes all the best elements from early favourites and gives them a contemporary groove. Talk about double A-sides. This is an essential purchase even if you don't buy singles and already have the album. Which you do, of course. Don't you.
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