Could we please be objective cause the other POLLS are queuing up behind us - Artist Poll #94 - Belle & Sebastian - RESULTS

I'm going to start fairly slooowly, with the US in mind. Might still be at #7 or something by dawn. :)

this is pretty close to the most dead time of day for ilm with it being middle of the night in the us

'sleep the clock around' is lovely but i wasn't quite expecting it to make top 10. between it and the title track i always think of boy with the arab strap as their electric piano album, although it's not really as prominent on the rest of the album

Love it when the bagpipes kick in, need more bagpipes in pop.

Never read this before, Stuart Murdoch
on Sleep the Clock Around:

"That song was about walking over the brow of a hill, away from the two people I loved most, when I had betrayed them somewhat: after they cast me out of their confidence and out of the cafe. So it’s a song that cries out for recovery."

♥️

Aww, that's lovely. StCA is a song that's become part of me, molecular.

I don't think I've ever heard the background sound effects on this used anywhere else - the little burbles and whirrs. They sound like the dreams of mouldering instruments.

That's brilliant, yes.

Assume they're Chris Geddes's work. He hasn't been mentioned enough on this thread.

His work is so understated yet utterly crucial to their sound.

http://i64.tinypic.com/2efswat.jpg

9. The Boy With the Arab Strap
From The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998)
Groovy, meandering rendition at Glastonbury, 2015
Points: 623
Votes: 32
#1 Votes: 3

I can barely even remember what I voted for now. Apart from perhaps "Judy" or "Fox" any of the last dozen could plausibly have been on my shortlist.

Ooh, thought that would be higher. Maybe we've all heard it to much.

That a song THIS good could be number nine in a discography is quite a thing.

So, which song is going to be their "Hey Bulldog"?

I think this was my #2. Every time I play it I have to resist dancing like a loon to it. But then think, fuck it and go for it.

This poll is reminding me how much I love this band. Thanks Nag.

:)

I'll wait another hour or so for the next one. Really don't want to rush too far ahead of the western hemisphere...

Too low. The Boy With The Arab Strap is my #1.

Naming an album and a song after another band is just another way B&S have managed to confuse me over the years. Others: having their own eponymous song, putting photographs of people on the covers who for a few years I (a casual fan) thought were actually in the band, having too many members, etc.

Assuming that's the band Arab Strap in the image for this one?

We used to dance often to "The Boy..." in the early 2000s.

XP: Yeah, photographed in approximately that same era IIRC.

http://i67.tinypic.com/vyup9l.jpg

8. The Stars of Track and Field
From If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
Amateur choral performance by Flash Chorus of Durham, North Carolina!
Live at the Barbican (audio track)
Points: 711
Votes: 35
#1 Votes: 1

Belle & Sebastian Coe, see. Brilliant.

:D

Enjoying the rollout NNN!

ah the points are really starting to jump now

Make a new cult everyday

Never a big fan of "Sleep the Clock Around" but love the other two tracks. Thought "Stars of Track and Field" had a good chance to be #1

first B&S song i ever heard, and I can still remember the feeling, something akin to "i have found my new favorite band"

http://i65.tinypic.com/2dig1zc.jpg

7. If You're Feeling Sinister
From If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
At Austin City Limits, 2014
Points: 723
Votes: 34
#1 Votes: 2

People don't reference this song enough! Glad it did so well. The playground noise is a weird masterstroke; "the vicar or whatever" similarly.

In a discography full of prettiness, this is their prettiest song.

the playground noise gives it this weird sense of 'passing through' if that makes any sense? i really like the effect it has, it's sort of breezy

http://i66.tinypic.com/vnz12e.jpg

6. I'm a Cuckoo
From Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
Original promo video
Avalanches remix, audio track
Points: 728
Votes: 31, including 2 votes for the Avalanches remix.
#1 Votes: 2

awesome

brilliant song, voted for it, the Avalanches remix is overrated

Still good though.

Great song. That moment when the brass section goes into overdrive is deliciously over-the-top and perfect.

XP: Sinister, the album, has so many songs with these long melodic phrases, and the title track is a good example:
"He'll try in vain to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever" comes out in one long stream where you keep expecting the melody to resolve but it keeps pushing on just a little bit further.

(see also: "Well if I remain passive and you just want to cuddle then we should be ok and we won't get in a muddle cause we're seeing other people, at least that's what we say we are doing")

I’m a Cuckoo was my number one, the avalanches remix is what put it over the top for me

Love, love this song.

The playground noise is a weird masterstroke

This is so true, and it's not exactly clear why it works so well. It doesn't really tie to the lyrics in an obvious way.

Hillary's musings reference a scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Perhaps it's a meditation on lost innocence and lost youth. Murdoch does a lot of repurposing of popular kids culture that serves a similar purpose, right down to the band name.

Does anyone remember the DVD singles? B&S were well served with those. I have most (if not all) of them.

IwasthebossofyouandIlovedyouyouknowIlovedyou

It's all over now

yeah going through this ballot has really made me notice Murdoch's unique sense of phrasing (in every sense)

“Never read this before, Stuart Murdoch
on Sleep the Clock Around:

"That song was about walking over the brow of a hill, away from the two people I loved most, when I had betrayed them somewhat: after they cast me out of their confidence and out of the cafe. So it’s a song that cries out for recovery."

♥️

― Alba, Monday, December 17, 2018 2:53 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink”

I love this. Like I said last night this is my fave B&S song. Very strong top ten so far as precdicted.

Funny little I'm a Cuckoo fact I noticed the other day. In Stuart David's B&S memoir he mentions the other Stuart in the pre B&S days having a song called Sunday Gang.

Have found no other reference to it except the line in I'm a Cuckoo "Watch the Sunday gang in Harajuku".

I thought it was 'Sunday gang in Harrods'! What the chuff is Harajuku?

A neighborhood in Tokyo.

They like Thin Lizzy. and stuff.

And this, I guess, is the Sunday Gang he's talking about?

https://www.tvcream.co.uk/telly/tv-a-z/n-z/s-is-for/sunday-gang/