ong at the vanguard of twenty-something folk angst, Scottish octet Belle and Sebastian have been keeping it quiet for the last year. Concentrating on their own individual projects (they are unofficially known as an artist collective) and film soundtrack contributions, they rely on the periodic release of EPs to let the public know they are still around. After all, these socialist types are unstable as heck. Who knows when frontman Stuart Murdoch will snap and throw a garbage can through a Starbucks window? So for a collective of artsy left-wingers, Belle and Sebastian have kept it together pretty long.

Their latest EP, I’m Waking Up To Us is a logical step from their previous releases. The orchestral sound they worked around with Fold Your Hands Child... is filled in with greater detail here. Also expanded upon is the macroslacker concept pioneered on their last EP, Jonathan David, wherein they could make allusions to biblical friendships and place them in teen angst jeopardy, ala some episode of Dawson’s Creek.

The first two songs have little to offer in the way of lyrical innovation; "I’m Waking Up to Us" simply reverses the theme from the intended picture of morning-after soporific bliss to reflect some hungover agony. "I Love My Car" revels in musical and lyrical simplicity. The song makes a good point for appreciation of little things, while obviously mocking its own genre. The standout here is closer "Marx and Engels." Instead of milking the easy-money pity cow with the trite unrequited love theme, Murdoch looks beyond and surprises with an introspective look at his own cult success. You see, Belle and Sebastian have received much grief from the press (NME at least) for being a political band with no political songs. Upon looking at the title, one would assume they have finally lived up to their rhetoric. While the song is not the tribute it purports itself to be, it effectively compares the unattainable girl’s trivial obsession with communism to Belle and Sebastian’s presence in the world. For what is an idea without any followers? Murdoch effectively recognizes their position as an underground phenomenon, while at the same time frustrating those who thought they finally had Belle and Sebastian pegged.