Act of the Apostle II

This is the continued story of the girl from part I. She has a challenging home life, and escapes by listening to music. This is where she finds God and/or revelation. (Like Paul heard from God on the Damascan Road.)

Her favorite broadcast is of a choir from a big church in the city. They are what she listened to during her revelatory moment, and so she decides to go on a quest to see the women singing in the choir face to face. It's her way of trying to grow up, seek answers, and find her own way. She doesn't know exactly what to expect but hopes to find it when she gets there.

Unfortunately, she doesn't even get into the church! God has not answered, and she finds herself alone in the unfriendly city. She's back to square one of her (dare I say it) life pursuit.

Alot of this seems to be one of those strange semi-autobiographical songs that Murdoch often writes, where he transposes his own stories or opinions onto the life of a teenage (more often than not) girl. In "Just a Modern Rock Story", a book detailing the career of B&S, Stuart tells fo a story from his youth where he travelled from Ayr in Scotland to London alone in the attempt to speak to the band 'Felt' (or it may have been 'Yes'), a band he idolizes. I think religion is used as a metaphor for music, claiming it creates the same feeling of freedom, release and pure love as the former does.

I thought this song was about the kind of malaise and restlessness you get from having a load of problems pile up, like in Act of the Apostle I where the girl's mother is sick and she's losing focus. In this song, the singer's a "genius" and a "prodigy", but he doesn't seem to care about those things. He's lost his sense of sureness and security about life: like in the lines "The city was losing its appeal" and "Oh, if I could make sense of it all!" and he's trying to rediscover what made him tick by getting into outside things like an 'Independent' and the bible. But at the same time, the singer realizes that the only way to regain that security and sense of "I've-got-everything-figured-out" is to look inside himself. The "God" he's searching for is in his past; "back in her village, in the fields." Btw, I think that the singer in the first part of the song and the girl in the second part are the same person, in that they have the same feelings and problems.

... Wow, that's really long and rambling. But hell, I'm the first commenter. ...Sometimes I feel like I relate to this song so completely. :) Belle and Sebastian, simply put, are amazing.

okay i finally figured this song out, after reading some review on the web.

so continued from part I, this girl looks for an answer in religion

"the bible's my tool" "my damascan's road's my transistor radio" "i am devout" her passion for religion is described like a typical kid's passion for music. religion's her escape? something like that.

but when the music for the first part returns, she's let down by religion. and yea.

this reminds me of events from my life i take "sick" in the part I to mean that her mother has depression and the girl is "sick" in this song, meaning the same thing i believe this is supposed to be first person narrative from the girl in the first song the girl isnt really a genius or a prodigy - thats the story she made up in case someone asks why she's not in school i like so get this song!! well these songs... its my life!

My favorite song on The Live Pursuit...remember the bastardly choir master from part I of this song? He's the man that this girl asked in part II if the service was open..get it?

There's so much to say, so I'll leave it at this: This is the best song ever, and my favorite song ever. Also, the theme song to my life probably.