Eager to explore new ideas, band leader Stuart Murdoch channeled his passion for The Pet Shop Boys and Bronski Beat on Belle and Sebastian’s ninth album. Electro-disco occupies about half of Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, from the bottom-heavy synth-pop of "The Party Line" to the Hi-NRG bounce of "Enter Sylvia Plath" (surely the first disco ode to the doomed poet). The other half? Cuts like the baroque-pop pearl "The Cat with the Cream" and the unassuming, acoustic strum-and-brush "Ever Had a Little Faith?" are solidly in the old-school B&S mode, and they blend surprisingly well with the more electronic excursions.