does anyone still like Belle and Sebastian?

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hstencil is such a wus at heart. ;-)

― jack cole (jackcole), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm pro-B&S though I find that they've been offering diminishing returns ever since The Boy With The Arab Strap. Even still, they still have some good songs on their weaker releases, like "Women's Realm" from their Fold Your Hands LP. I very seldom listen to the band, but I do enjoy the songs I like a lot when I hear them. Their best songs are great pop music, and I'm always a sucker for that.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 23:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

On the subject of Stevie Jackson - though I'm not a huge fan of his songs, I don't mind him nearly as much as I do the contributions of Isobel, Sarah, or the Looper guy. I like Isobel as a back up singer for Stuart Murdoch, but as a lead vocalist/songwriter, she's almost unbearable.

The absolute worst B&S song is the duet that Isobel and Stevie sing on Fold Your Hands...I think it's called "Before The Sunrise". That song is painfully bad, I often think of it as being one of the worst songs I've ever paid to own a copy of.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 23:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

gygax! is right: I do like "Century of Fakers." You can burn the rest, tho.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 01:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

*head explodes*

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 01:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

c'mon, I'd mentioned that before!

― hstencil, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 01:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

htweencil

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 02:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

I love B&S. My friend Elise had there CD and we were listening to it together one time. There awesome. I dont have alot of there music, and I dont hear much about them, but I like them alot. Some of there songs reak, but for the most part there pretty good.

― Trina, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 05:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

I reckon B&S are going through their late-60s/early-70s Beach Boys period now, where the main creative force has blown his wad, and the other less outrageously-gifted, but still studio-savvy and pop-clever folks are taking over. These are the Carl and Dennis years (or maybe the Bruce Johnstone era). I don't think there's any danger of a Mike Love period, cos they, er, got rid of her.

I look forward to the *sound* of future B&S records, even if the songs might be a bit flimsy. I liked Storytelling quite a bit and I got the (perhaps entirely mistaken) impression that it was a Stevie-driven thing.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 10:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

I still like them. I overdosed back when I liked them a lot though. At Glastonbury they were marvellous, I thought. Not heard Storytelling but "Jonathan David" was a very good single and the one after that had its moments. I think I'm fonder of them because of the nice people I've met who like them.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 10:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

What is the appeal of Stuart Murdoch's voice?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 11:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Enunciation.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 11:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Can't you enunciate and still sound like you're providing some kind of support for your tone?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 11:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tone support is for nasty bullies.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 11:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Really? Like, it's more sympathetic because it's weaker-sounding? (Or am I reading too much into a joke?) Would you rate it as better or at least as distinct and equally valuabe as Nick Drake's voice, say?

Do you like Bernard Sumner too?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 11:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

this thread reminds me of my hardline theory that people who are not B&S fans should not be allowed express opinions about them.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think I like them more than I used to. Back then, lots of people I knew loved them so much that it felt over the top, even if possibly it wasn't. Now they don't do that anymore, and I feel like a real B&S fan.

Or: the pinefox is to B&S as Roy Hattersley is to 'socialism'.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

What is the Storytelling album like, anyway? I keep meaning to ask this.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's often lovely.

I first heard it at THE VICAR'S HOUSE. (The Old Vicarage - it's just inside THE PHOENIX PARK.) It sounded surprising - as in: 'jeez, what's this - a new B&S record??'. It seemed to me to have arrived very suddenly.

It has some fine tunes. That comment looks blander than it should. It really does have one or two fine tunes.

Swearing should be banned from pop song titles, though.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

What is "Storytelling" like? It's like a soundtrack record. Many of the tracks are instrumentals, many of theme feature variations on themes used in earlier tracks. There are a few songs with words, sung by Stevie, Sarah, and Stuart. The record features a lot of harmonica, making it sound a bit olde worlde.

it also has samples of dialogue from the film. They are great, particularly the one about how great New Jersey is. Having heard these snippets of dialogue I feel that the best of the film has been extracted for me. Thanks B&S!

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Thanks, I was wondering if it was mainly instrumentals.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

They were amazing on John Peel's show at Christmas. Somehow they've turned into a really great live band, when they used to just fumble through their performances. The only downer in the whole set was the warbly singing of that bird from Camera Obscura, who replaced Isobel.

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

I still love tigermilk, especially that one that sounds like Procession by New Order.

― Daniel (dancity), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

i always thought of B&S as the incredible string band of the 90's.

tigermilk = the first one
if you're feeling sinister = the 5000 spirits....
arab strap = hangman's beautiful daughter

and after that will come a bunch more, none that are actually TERRIBLE but nothing essential or particularly inspired.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

i always thought the beta band was the isb of the 90s. and b&s were the band which translated nick drake into the 90s. if you're feeling sinister is a perfect album. it is in my top 40 of the 90s.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 21:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

Still love 'em. Didn't like FYH... or Storytelling much, but all the singles ("Legal Man," "I'm Waking Up to Us," "Jonathan David") are great. I prefer to take them together as the best B&S album since Sinister.

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 21:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Daniel - you meant "Everything's Gone Green" by New Order, of course, didn't you ?

B & S have become an easy target now that they are no longer making the same kind of music and having the impact that they had a few years ago, when they were as loved as deeply and pointlessly as any schmindie band had been for years.

They are what they are - an oasis of mostly gorgeous sweet, inoffensive and occasionally beautiful well-crafted pop at a time when there is little like it around, and they should be cherished for it.

ps: I think Stuart Murdoch ought to give up trying to combine management duties at Wimbledon with leading B & S - it's affecting his workload !

― darren (darren), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 21:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Somehow they've turned into a really great live band, when they used to just fumble through their performances.

this is worth emphasising - they have become such a kickarse big fun live band it's almost hard to believe, especially if you saw ye liveliest awfulnesse that was their gig in Dublin's Olympia (looooong gaps between songs, manifestly bad vibes onstage, Stuart smashing his guitar, etc.).

that said, Isobel leaving loses the band an air of entertaining onstage mentalism.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 21:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

five months pass...

Oo-er! Stay Loose? Cor blimey missus! AKA Belle & Sebastian go Sting-style plod-reggae.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 30 August 2003 00:19 (twenty years ago) link

Stay Loose is fantastic and I commend it to the house.

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 30 August 2003 00:21 (twenty years ago) link

That is the bassline from 'Walking On The Moon', though.

A bit of 'Ashes To Ashes' at the beginning, too.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 30 August 2003 00:36 (twenty years ago) link

Good! (don't give up on it at the 'toast' line stage)

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 30 August 2003 00:38 (twenty years ago) link

btw does anyone know why this is the only track that seems to be doing the rounds?

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 30 August 2003 00:38 (twenty years ago) link

ive seen the new album kicking about on kazaa and ssk.

― brandon, Saturday, 30 August 2003 00:49 (twenty years ago) link

That is the bassline from 'Walking On The Moon', though.

bastards! i just ripped off that same bassline. back to the drawing board.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 30 August 2003 05:04 (twenty years ago) link

there's a studio version of 'step into my office, baby'. it is OK.

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 30 August 2003 05:06 (twenty years ago) link

I really like that track! It's very "Good Vibrations"!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 1 September 2003 07:36 (twenty years ago) link

The Pinefox-Dublin jury feels that 'I'm Waking Up To Us' is an example of how late period B&S still have it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 1 September 2003 08:42 (twenty years ago) link

'Stay Loose' is interesting. This is the first fruit of their Trevor Horn collaboration, right? It totally sounds like something from the time when the tinny, bitter little organ was king and if it wasn't Stiff it wasn't worth a fuck. It's got echoes of The Police, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Squeeze. The way a 60s-sounding band has suddenly latched onto the 70s reminds me of Felt becoming Denim. (So maybe they should change their name: from Belle and Sebastian to, say, Starsky and Hutch?) Sure, it's a different part of the 70s, but it marks a similar transition from 'sincerity' to 'pop gloss'. Stuart's voice even sounds a bit like Lawrence's on the first Denim album: there's something a little too vulnerable and quavery in there for it to sit quite comfortably with the slick production. Which is nice. What's really odd, though, is how the track shifts back, two thirds of the way through, into the 60s B&S idiom. It's like hearing Joe Jackson turning into Paul Simon mid-song. Is it a sop to fans who want to hear the song in the kind of arrangement they're used to? Is it like doing an impression then going back into your real voice at the end? But the use of styles from two different decades within a single song brings a dizzyingly post-modern feel to the track. We're in a labyrinth of mirrors, being guided by the voice of Peter Sellers. Do we follow Clouseau or do we follow Strangelove? Which voice leads to the exit?

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 1 September 2003 09:00 (twenty years ago) link

not having heard any of the new B&S stuff, I am curious i) as to whether this will be the moment when they definitively go rubbish, and ii) what the implications for this would be for internet based B&S fandom.

ah well, time will tell.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 1 September 2003 09:20 (twenty years ago) link

boak! belle and Sebastian are the devil's spawn!

― jed_e_3 (jed_e_3), Monday, 1 September 2003 09:30 (twenty years ago) link

Gosh it is very Squeezy, isn't it? It even sounds like Murdoch is trying to put on a South London accent. I am moving to a house near Deptford next week - maybe it will sound better there.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 1 September 2003 09:39 (twenty years ago) link

Hey Momus did you read 'Crisis' back in the day?

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 1 September 2003 09:58 (twenty years ago) link

Wow. I like this.

― Cozen (Cozen), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:23 (twenty years ago) link

You mean Crisis magazine, 'politics, culture and the church'?

Me and Stuart both read that, as does anybody with a keen interest in ecclesiastical ephemera.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

No, I was prob being dumb

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 1 September 2003 10:32 (twenty years ago) link

This song cannot survive that organ.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 1 September 2003 12:43 (twenty years ago) link

If I had a pound for every time that's been said to me ...

― Mooro (Mooro), Monday, 1 September 2003 18:34 (twenty years ago) link

I was thinking about doing an article on accents in the songs of B & S and the Scottish doppelganger, huh?

― Cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 10:20 (twenty years ago) link

It is a good idea.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 10:21 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 218 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I saw a review this morning, seemed to suggest that the christmas session was an extra on CD2..

― Mark G, Thursday, 13 November 2008 08:31 (fifteen years ago) link

Oh, I see what they've done...

The Belfast show was a christmas gig.

― Mark G, Thursday, 13 November 2008 08:34 (fifteen years ago) link

Their b-sides and EP collections feature their best work. Hooking up with Trevor Horn was a bad idea in the long run, but where else would they have taken their sound? Oh well, still have the early music.

― Cunga, Thursday, 13 November 2008 08:58 (fifteen years ago) link

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJbIqiBNQX0

― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 07:42 (thirteen years ago) link

Such a great live band. The audience is getting older and surlier though. Someone threw spitballs at me for standing & dancing when they played at a seated concert hall in Toronto last year :(

― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 21:20 (thirteen years ago) link

the youtube that I posted is strangely amazing btw

― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 22:38 (thirteen years ago) link

I can't stop watching it

― call me king bubbles and sound like a sheik sheik (CaptainLorax), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 22:44 (thirteen years ago) link

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