The track, which is not on the album nor part of the GHTG subscription package, was recorded in Glasgow last year with Linnea Jönsson, the lead singer of Swedish band, Those Dancing Days on vocals.
The download also features a new version of “A Down and Dusky Blonde” with lead vocals by Dina Bankole.
Both tracks will also be available to buy digitally via www.godhelpthegirl.com, and will be bundled with the artwork and video for “Baby You’re Blind,” which was filmed in Stockholm in January of this year.
Through the auspices of iMeem, you can stream the entire God Help The Girl full-length. The Stuart Murdoch-helmed project is available on LP/CD and digital album now at the Matador Store.
June 23 sees the release of the God Help the Girl, a story set to music by Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian.
In the latest video from the album, available for purchase here, Stuart seeks out and auditions a group of young singers who ultimately provide the vocal backbone for God Help the Girl.
Fans will recognize “Funny Little Frog” from Belle’s most recent album, “The Life Pursuit”.
In a bold marketing plan defying surprise, Stuart Murdoch has just posted a brand new song on the God Help The Girl site. It was recorded last weekend.
The song is called “Mary’s Market” and features a familiar friend on lead vocals. Here’s what Stuart has to say about it:
Hi folks:
We have a new track for you. It’s called ‘Mary’s Market’, and we recorded it last weekend. It’s going to be the B-side to the ‘Funny Little Frog’ single, but we thought we’d let you hear it since the weather’s nice here, and we’re in a good mood, and it seems to match the weather!
The picture to go with the track features the stylish Scottish BBC newsreader, Mary Marquis. When I was writing the song, I wrote the lines
You showed me yesterday’s dress
The one you nicked from Mary’s Market
And it kind of sounded like Mary Marquis, so she gets to go on the cover! It kind of amuses me to think of the girl in the song nicking a frock from Mary Marquis, as it would probably be a frock worth nicking! (As you can see from the picture)
GodHelpTheGirl.com has re-launched with a very exciting, fan-drooler of a subscription offer that includes 7″s, a Deluxe CD or LP of the new album, a 10″ and oodles of extra digital goodies. Plus, if you order you will get an instant stream of the entire album.
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.
As well as delivering 7″ singles, 10″ EPs and your choice of CD or LP albums straight to your door we will regularly fill your inbox with video footage made to document the creative process by Stuart Murdoch and Marisa Privitera, music videos and album streams to keep you entertained no matter how far from your record players you stray this summer.
By subscribing you will receive the following:
Physical
11th May: 7″ ‘Come Monday Night’ single
22nd June: LTD CD or LP God Help The Girl album
20th July: 7″ ‘Funny Little Frog’ single
By Xmas: 10″ 5 track exclusive EP
Digital
A full album stream on purchase
MP3s of the Album & 7″ on release
The ‘Come Monday Night’ video
4 x episodes documenting the ‘Making of”
The ‘Funny Little Frog’ video
Now to further get you excited, here is the brand new video for the first single “Come Monday Night” directed by Blaire Young and Stuart Murdoch. (via Pitchfork.tv)
For more information, visit godhelpthegirl.com, where you can watch a short movie about the making of this album, including auditions, interviews, studio footage and more. Sign up for the mailing list and keep checking back, because we’ll have exciting subscription news with delicious extras there soon.
• Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch presents his new musical project ‘God Help The Girl’, self titled debut (LP/CD/digital available June 23 on Matador Records in North America, the previous day in Europe on Rough Trade), preceded by a single ‘Come Monday Night’ (May 11, via Rough Trade)
“Come Monday Night” -
• Features an array of singers, including Stuart’s discovery Catherine Ireton, Asya of Smoosh, Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy, the other members of Belle and Sebastian and a 45 piece orchestra conducted by ‘Withnail & I’ composer Rick Wentworth.
‘God Help The Girl’ is a story set to music, which Stuart Murdoch has been working on intermittently for the last five years, its origin in some songs that were written while Belle and Sebastian were touring ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ in 2004. Stuart explains:
“I was out for a run and I got this tune in my head and it occurred to me that it wasn’t a Belle & Sebastian song. I could hear female voices and strings, I could hear the whole thing, but I just couldn’t envisage myself singing it with the group.”
As more songs emerged, a shape and theme began to develop, before the music was actually recorded, or the vocalists found to take on the parts.
“All the time I was touring with Belle and Sebastian, I was putting aside songs for certain characters,” he says, “and at one point I realised, that it would make sense to string them together to form the backbone of a musical narrative.”
The hunt was then on to find some great new voices to put to use during the recordings. A competition where singers could add their vocals to the demo recordings of ‘Funny Little Frog’ and ‘The Psychiatrist Is In’ was posted on the iMeem social networking site and attracted around 400 entries. From these, Brittany Stallings (Olympia, Washington) and Dina Bankole (Jackson, Michigan) came to Glasgow in February 2008 to rehearse and record some parts, Brittany making the lead vocal part on ‘Funny Little Frog’ her own.
Among those who auditioned early in the process was Catherine Ireton (above), who had moved from Limerick to Glasgow, a friend of a friend, who had previously appeared on the sleeve of Belle and Sebastian’s last single, ‘The White Collar Boy.’ She took on the lead vocals for the majority of the songs on the record.
The recording continued during 2008, with a total of nine different singers (including Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy and Asya from American teen trio, Smoosh) joining the members of Belle and Sebastian over the course of a few months. During this, Mick Cooke’s orchestral arrangements were recorded in London with the orchestra before the finishing touches were applied in Glasgow.
The result is a breathtaking record from one of pop’s most singular voices, combining the strengths and feel of the early Belle and Sebastian records in a broader musical palette, which draws equally on musicals, sixties’ girl groups, eighties’ indie and, most of all, classic pop records. And, in Catherine, Stuart has found a rare talent – her clear, lilting vocals bringing to life the characters in Stuart’s imagination and making for an ambitious and engrossing musical journey
Tracklisting / Vocalist
01.Act of the Apostle – Catherine Ireton
02.God Help The Girl – Catherine
03.Pretty Eve In The Tub – Stuart, Catherine
04.A Unified Theory – Instrumental
05.Hiding Neath My Umbrella – Catherine, Stuart
06.Funny Little Frog – Brittany Stallings
07.If You Could Speak – Catherine, Anna Miles
08.Musician Please Take Heed – Catherine
09.Perfection as a Hipster – Neil Hannon, Catherine
10.Come Monday Night – Catherine
11.Music Room Window – instrumental
12.I Just Want His Jeans – Asya
13.Iʼll Have To Dance With Cassie – Catherine
14.A Down and Dusky Blonde – Dina Bankole, Catherine, Celia Garcia, Brittany, Asya
Preorder information for the Matador edition(s) of ‘God Help The Girl’ is forthcoming in this space very soon.
In a bold marketing plan defying surprise, Stuart Murdoch has just posted a brand new song on the 
