zed equals zee

Stuart Murdoch (of Belle and Sebastian) has launched his latest project, girl-group inspired God Help the Girl. He’s blogging about it for the Grauniad, and the first post came out a few days ago:

I was in a pop band, but there was no glamour. I had given it my best shot, but I had experienced none of the highs that I had perhaps expected a working pop singer to experience. I’m not talking about snorting coke and laydeez. I’m talking about something else … it’s hard to say. …Belle and Sebastian have never had a hit record. Not really. Not a proper hit record. Therefore, Belle and Sebastian have never recorded music with the feeling that anyone was actually waiting to hear it! We have never recorded for an audience. Therefore, we have always recorded music … in a vacuum!

They’ve developed a beautiful website to showcase the project, including Murdoch’s diary, a place to ask questions, and making-of videos. And the music project itself is being presented as a subscription, with digital music, CDs, 7-inches, videos and more:

This subscription package will gently unwind over the months allowing you to soak up the living, breathing world of God Help The Girl. A musical project with a beautifully and diligently crafted narrative that deserves to be listened to over time, for each place, character and voice to be properly digested before moving on to the next.

You can learn more about the project here, or subscribe for yourself here. While God Help the Girl aren’t the first people to do a subscription model of this sort, this is a notably well-executed version.

MP3: God Help the Girl – Come Monday Night