Since their emergence 13 years ago, Belle and Sebastian have been held up as a totem of indie insularity, the kind of band fans want to smother with their cardigan-clad arms and protect from the vagaries of the modern world. But if it were up to the band’s chief lyricist Stuart Murdoch, he’d give up all the fanzine plaudits in the world for a chance to play song doctor to the stars. For his first solo project, God Help the Girl — the soundtrack to an as-yet-uncompleted film — he essentially hosts his own version of Pop Idol, farming out songs to a cast of mostly unknown, mostly female singers recruited from other bands and classified ads, and slathering them in gaudy, talk-show orchestra arrangements. Alas, the open-audition gambit works better in concept than in practice — budding diva Britney Stallings’ Philly-soul makeover of Belle and Sebastian’s “Funny Little Frog” oversells the song’s desperation — but in Catherine Ireton (who figures on 10 of the 14 songs here), Murdoch may have finally discovered the reliable female foil he’s been looking for since Isobel Campbell ditched B&S back in ’02.