All The Brightest Sunbeams

Belle & Sebastian “Working Boy in New York City”

I’ve been fascinated with how Stuart Murdoch integrates Christianity into his lyrics for a long time now, particularly as he’s become emboldened to do this quite overtly as his career progresses. Murdoch’s version of Christianity focuses on the most kind-hearted and optimistic elements of the faith and jettisons pretty much everything else, mostly just extrapolating the good ideas into the praxis of being a decent and empathetic person in the world. “Working Boy in New York City” is a great example of this. This is a light and groovy number in which Murdoch addresses a gay guy who hasn’t been open about his sexuality with some people and basically offers generous words of support and affirmation. It’s a sweet little pep talk of a song with a chorus that zooms out from this particular person’s issues to speak to a wider audience – “everybody gets an even shot at making heaven, wide is the gate.” It’s such a sweet sentiment for a song, and all the more so given that it’s set to one of Murdoch’s prettiest melodies in years.

Buy it from Bandcamp.