POLLercoaster Ride - ILM Artist Poll #94 - Belle and Sebastian - Discussion/Campaigning Thread

And, not seen it mentioned yet, but Seymour Stein will be top 5 for me.

same, most likely.

Belle and Sebastian - The Model >>>>> Kraftwerk - The Model

I’m getting sick rn so this works out perfectly. I’ll probably have “I Know Where the Summer Goes” on my ballot, lovely song.

Will be voting in this, which gives me a cause to finally acknowledge my most glaring blind spot: Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I can sort of understand how I missed it: Fold Your Hands... let me down when it came out, and I skipped right over it (ditto the Solondz soundtrack they did, though that is obviously less essential). Less understandable is that I never went back to it, as The Life Pursuit floored me when it came out, and is still my fave B&S album. I’ve heard “Step into My Office Baby” and the Mike Piazza song, but the rest of the album will be new to me.

dangit, i want to get sick. i'm missing out

tbh a few songs on DCW annoy me pretty strongly, though the highs are incredible

Roy Walker is a bit of a stinker.

I assume "Push Barman..." does not count as an album?

XP: I never need to hear *ducks* "Step Into My Office, Baby" ever again, but I distinctly recall being all "YES! Exactly the right move!" upon hearing previews of "Stay Loose" and "I'm a Cuckoo" after the dead end of Fold Your Hands....

And Push Barman is fine for the albums poll, as far as I'm concerned. Likewise Third Eye Centre and the BBC thingy.

i think it'd be a lot of fun to listen to this band chronologically so i'm gonna give that a shot while assembling my ballot

a few years ago i made a playlist of all my favorite b&s songs and i think it flows really well for being 50 songs long https://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/4EvRvOmaS4T7qjh6kEkJjI?si=_cwi_GFdRRS-SE82nZSgFA

XP: I never need to hear *ducks* "Step Into My Office, Baby"

Yes. I'm going back to Dear Catastrophe Waitress for the first time in years and it's way better than I remember, after the first two songs which will not be on my ballot.

fair warning, im gonna vote for their cover of The Boys Are Back in Town as my #1

ok i won't, but it certainly might make my top 30

I've never heard that but I feel like I can imagine exactly what it sounds like (and it rules?)

i'm halfway through tigermilk and this is gonna be a tough poll

you guys are nuts, dear catastrophe waitress starts strong stays strong

i guess that's why we do the poll!

first run-through of my ballot has 8 songs from sinister on it...

First run through is 34 songs and nothing post DCW. I need to do some listening (and could do with some recommendations...).

Yeah I both a) want to give a fair listen to post-DCW material and b) don't really know how to cut down DCW and before to 30 songs...

I Want the World to Stop from Write About Love and Play For Today from Girls in Peacetime stood way out to me on those moderately disappointing albums.

Play for Today and Cat with the Cream destined for my ballot.

Write About Love and I Didn't See It Coming stand a good chance as well.

Nobody's Empire from Girls in Peacetime will be top ten on my ballot, you should definitely check that out.

What do people reckon about PTBBOTS / Songs for Children? One song or two?

They're not obviously related as compositions, but they've never been issued as separate tracks. Hmmmmm. Perhaps we can separate them if someone expresses a desire to vote for the latter independently of the former. Otherwise...

"the book of you" from girls in peacetime is top ten and maybe even top five b&s for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yDPPdqyW8w

oh yeah "nobody's empire" is also way up there

Well damn I already submitted my ballot sans "Push Barman..." but it is far and away my favourite B&S "album" (as was the CD-R I made from a friend's 3-EP boxset before "Barman..." was released)

Stuart Murdoch basically hits the ball when he writes one of his signature traipsing melodies (e.g. the verses of "Beautiful", the whole of "Piazza, New York Catcher") and pairs it with a deliciously misanthropic sentiment. I've thought for hours about "I was moved to kick the crutches from my crippled friend / my crippled friend" which is enormously difficult to unpack-- the character is an asshole for kicking crutches, the songwriter himself is an asshole for singing "crippled", and yet the line seems to be loving, the repetition of "my crippled friend" suggests a commemorative quality to the moment. Or the entirely of "Lazy Jane" which is both gaze-y upon its subject and simultaneously appreciative, tossing off a "and... she's bisexual? not that there's anything.." moment with the boy/girl flip on the choruses. I can't really figure out of this kind of Jerk Protagonist lyrical approach is just a revision of Morrissey or if Murdoch has invented his own unique brand of sympathetic assholism

Their song 'Are You Coming Over For Christmas?' pretty much always makes it onto my alternative xmas mixes. We'll see how festive I am come poll submission.

XP: I think the first thing I did with Napster was construct exactly such an EP compilation. Barman might be my #1 too. Happy to accept amendments!

I can't really justify voting for anything later than oooh... "I'm Waking Up To Us" maybe? I always loved the performative melodrama in that one.

The first thing I've noticed going through these (I've got through the first 2 LPs and first 2 EPs) is that the opaque coyness I originally suspected to be about being gay is actually more like opaque coyness about being Christian. I'm fine with this now, but do wonder whether it would have put me off had I realised at the time I was listening to Christian rock.

I've thought for hours about "I was moved to kick the crutches from my crippled friend / my crippled friend" which is enormously difficult to unpack-- the character is an asshole for kicking crutches, the songwriter himself is an asshole for singing "crippled", and yet the line seems to be loving, the repetition of "my crippled friend" suggests a commemorative quality to the moment.

I thought it was less that he’s an asshole and more that he’s having delusions of being a faith healer, but I’ve never been quite clear on exactly what’s going on in the song. I do love that it’s one of those songs where each line changes the story.

Swear i think this might be their best song, maybe it just makes me a bit 'emo' because a girl i know said it helped her at a difficult time. It's about Stuart Murdoch's illness (ME) that he had when he was young and he shares towards the end the sage advice he received about how one might conquer fears/difficulties generally. I think it's everything a song should be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgb8am3NQU0

Jonathan David will place high in my ballot. Such a singalong (if you share my talent for hitting high notes)

I didn't rank my ballot but it's "I Know Where The Summer Goes" because I am corny and I have good taste

"Nobody's Empire" is easily my favourite post-TLP track. Will be high up on my ballot.

this is going to be the first of these epic polls i will participate in

i'm finally qualified

this is going to be fun, i don't know the early stuff by them so looking forward to diving in. my favorite is The Life Pursuit as it sounds like a single collection more than an album.

also good job on the set up Nag! Nag! Nag!, as i don't think you have done one of these yet. it's a lot of work but also a lot of fun. have a good time!

New B&S makes me sad. I think Stuart David and Isobel Campbell shaped the band into something good. Upon their departure the shape of B&S was more volatile. It was a bright period of discovery in which they ventured down some untrodden territory; but at the same time they neglected their signature sound and space. That volatilty produced some random goodies alongside klunkers. However, it couldn’t sustain itself for very long. B&S slowly deflated into a “cool” (read as dull), spiritless, poo emoticon shape. Some say that on a particularly twee evening you can stick your head out the window and hear the ghost of Stuart moonlighting as his former self.

wtf @ that nonsense

Thry lost their innocence and you cant get that back.

every band falls off eventually. i don't think it's something to be sad about or lament

Jonathan David will place high in my ballot. Such a singalong (if you share my talent for hitting high notes)

Is Jonathan David the consensus favorite Stevie Jackson song? I like it a lot, but I've always found the chords and melody of the verses to be a little jarring. Can someone with a better grasp of theory explain what's going on there to make it so cartoonishly spooky and dissonant, like is it an abundance of diminished chords or something like that?

I'd go with To Be Myself Completely for top Stevie track--wistful pop-soul classicism with nice background vox from Stuart.

oh jeez "dirty dream number two" is the best song in the world

i still haven't voted, i still am very sorry, and i still promise to get my ballot in today

Okay, I think we're just waiting for Karl Malone and Van Horn Street now. :)

I need to go out for perhaps six hours and then I've have a look at how things are going. Any other ballots that might arrive in that period will be happily tabulated too, of course.

Incidentally, if anyone sent one at any stage and didn't get a reply, then something has gone awry!

sent!

i kept dropping "dylan in the movies" down a bit during the long piano solo in the middle of the song, but then bumping it back during the "If we all went back to another time / I will love you over" section

so uh, does anyone know a band that has instrumental twee that sounds like belle and sebastian? or even a soft voice on top of chamber music that sounds like stuff belle and sebastian could of made?

Nick Drake?

Camera Obscura?

Damien Jurado?

commercials for health insurance for dogs?

SM literally produced Camera Obscura, so

The Left Banke.

about to send!

^ Which makes it...50 ballots!

that's so great! I haven't participated in a lot of these polls, but that seem like a lot

So psyched for this

Voted!

Room for one more?

Yep!

Also: did Van Horn Street survive his/her exam?

So excited to see the results of this. I voted early, without listening back to any of their music. Ever since I've been on a nonstop B&S listening kick, listened back through all of it. There's definitely some songs I should have voted for, but no looking back.

^ Similar here. I was just thinking before that my most persistent earworms this week were things like "Poor Boy", "Come On Sister", "Didn't See It Coming" and "Power of Three", none of which were even close to being on my list. They could probably sustain a career on their second and third tier songs alone.

Okay, I'll start closing this now.

I'll take what I have to be the final numbers for the albums and EPs (the order, at least, looks to be quite stable now anyway) and get that ready for the countdown thread. I might be able to start that as early as late evening, my time. (Perhaps midday GMT)

If Van Horn Street still has a tracks ballot to submit, hopefully I'll see that in the next few hours.

Results thread:

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