elle & Sebastian show that getting older is quite possibly the worst thing ever (heck, they're named after a French children's book). The Who said it best, but these Scottish indie-poppers have stretched "My Generation" into an entire career. Belle & Sebastian aren't angry about the advancing of years like The Who, though - they're just really dejected.

Belle is the heir to The Smith's adolescent angst, cult following, and effortless melodies. Their previous albums have spoke directly to the shy, ugly, and depressed kid in the corner of the playground, all while singing breezy and agreeable tunes.

What a surprise, then, to find such adult-centered subject matter on Belle & Sebastian's latest, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant. Kicking off with the majestic ballad, "I Fought In A War," B&S show us that childhood's monsters are adult's everyday occurrences.

"...I found out that the sickness there ahead of me / Went beyond the bedsit infamy of the decade gone before." Pop doesn't get any more cerebral than that, folks. Working on a clever story-song that parallels growing old with war, lead Belle (or is it Sebastian?) Stuart Murdoch has crafted a baroque wonder of a pop song, one that's so good, in fact, that the rest of the album suffers somewhat in comparison. Resplendent with strings that flow like trees from the speakers, "I Fought In A War" is capped off with Murdoch playing his acoustic guitar so gently he's afraid it might break.

Even more adult-oriented in lyrical content is the aching and sparse folk of "The Chalet Lines." Murdoch (in a gender-bending role that would make Prince proud) takes on the role of a woman relating her rape to a friend. "The Chalet Lines" would be overdone in its maudlin melodrama if it wasn't so sincere and brutally honest. "I missed my time, I don't think I could stand / To take the test, I'm feeling sick / F*** this...I'd put a knife right into his eyes" show that this isn't the B&S we've known.

"Don't Leave The Light On Baby" and "The Wrong Girl" show that teenage heartbreak is nothing compared to the heartache of breakups in your later years. "Don't Leave The Light..." is filled with resignation, both lyrically and musically. When Murdoch sings "Best to go down without a fight / I know you will forgive me for my honesty," an overcast organ echoes his sentiments.

"The Wrong Girl" is even better, pure sunny pop that Burt Bacharach would kill for. Elegant strings and a bouncy country-ish guitar belie the song's lyrics of lost love. But "The Wrong Girl" also shows that there is a glimmer of hope, as Murdoch realizes that the girl he lost was the "wrong dream to have in my mind."

Belle & Sebastian hasn't completely disowned the adolescent story-songs, however. Belle's other singer, Isobel, handles most of these. "Family Tree" is the best of them, as it contains to-die-for lyrics. A tale of a girl who doesn't fit in at school, Isobel delivers memorable lines such as "We do chemistry, biology, and maths / I want poetry and music and some laughs."

"Women's Realm" is one of the best teenage relationship songs I've ever heard, filled with doe-eyed couplets and a melody that will instantly burrow into your heart and snuggle up there. Lines like "I'm thinking of a song or two / A boy a girl a rendezvous" show an unabashed romanticism that is relatively absent in today's music scene.

The album returns to the adult point of view for its close, the impressive "There's Too Much Love." "I feel like dancing on my own / Where no one knows me, and where I / Can cause offense just by the way I look" conflicts with lines like "There's too much love to go around these days." I guess B&S just can't be truly happy no matter what age demographic.

While there's no dearth of lyrical growth on the album, it's no departure from B&S's earlier work, musically. That's the only complaint with the album. Fortunately, they're so good at it, you don't really mind. While I'm wondering whether or not their pimples will clear on the next album, this one will get plenty of spins.