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

Oh, I've been following the other thread and completely missed that this was happening. I'm excited! It's been a while since we've polled a group where I knew all of their material inside and out like B&S.

DIrty Dream #2 is pure joy and the best of their 'Motown' songs.

I never liked DD#2 too much; the arrangement tipped into the wrong end of pastiche for me.

I will be participating in this poll.

Looking forward to relistening to those old songs I used to obsess over, and giving the last two albums a go.

I suspect my tolerance for the teenage girl character songs will have dwindled.

Aren't the Pocketbook Angel et al demos pre B&S?

My B&S deep-dive starts now! Is "Dog on Wheels" supposed to be an homage to/ripoff of "Maybe the People Would Be the Time or Between Clark and Hilldale" by Love?

Xps First listen to stuff from Peacetime - Play for Today is fabulous.

xp It's kind of like Love covering Summer Wine by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood

I can’t dislike any album up through FYH.. because those albums all all blend together into their signature sound (or mix tape) that I like so much

XP: That was my very first impression of B&S. "So this Belle & Sebastian thing the Indiepop List has been going on about for months is basically...Love, if 'Dog On Wheels' is any indication. Groovy!" or similar.

Jonathan David is essentially a Forever Changes/Alone Again Or homage, no?

― everything, Monday, November 26, 2018 10:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is how I feel about I’m Waking Up to Us (forever changes, not alone again)

I'm going to try and get a ballot together for this even though I only really like the early records - I just don't enjoy the post-'90s stuff apart from odd songs here and there.

Very easily found 20 tracks I can get behind, 30 is more of a stretch. Was able to shave it down a lot by eliminating any tracks whose tunes I couldn't immediately bring to mind.

I almost feel like doing a "worst" ballot would actually be fun for these guys -- I love them but they have a small minority of real clunkers. I sort of hate "I'm Waking Up To Us," "Sukie in the Graveyard" and a few others. Probably some of the Fold Your Hands deep cuts I've not listened to in a while.

Shocked we haven't polled them before! This is a band I've perpetually meant to dive into (past the three albums I have) so this seems the perfect time to do so

I was so fully obsessed with If You're Feeling Sinister -- don't listen to it THAT much anymore but I'm gonna be honest, it may be hard to identify a song on that album that doesn't rank among my top 30 B&S tracks.

barely started putting my ballot together but i think there's a good chance I'm A Cuckoo ends up my number one, it's such a perfect sunny pop song and really stands out in their catalogue

There's a lot of enthusiasm for this poll, glad to see it.

xp I'm a Cuckoo is brilliant, gonna be very high for me too

same

the most perfect thin lizzy pastiche

speaking of which I'm finally listening to their "Boys Are Back In Town" and it rules

i obviously love the avalanches remix, but i make time for both. there are little chordal flourishes in the original version that the remix steamrolls with flutes and percussion, but the remix is so lively and exuberant, an instant happy-maker.

As far as later tracks go, I'm a big fan of "The Blues are Still Blue."

who's voting for "legal man" aka my favorite pointless gilmore girls subplot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBqjC1mmh3k

A few other tracks missing from the list initially posted, from various editions of Girls in Peacetime:

Born to Act
Two Birds
Piggy in the Middle
A Politician's Silence

Don't know that any would make my top 30, but I do play Politician's Silence a lot.

made it to fold your hands already:

- as has been stated 1000 times in this thread and the other b&s thread, tigermilk, sinister, and the three eps from '97 is just a perfect body of work
- boy with the arab strap is the slightest step down for me, it's just a lot looser than its predecessors, but i also love the way it feels kinda like an extended belle & sebastian ep with its swerves in and out of goofiness
- fold your hands starts off incredibly strong, "the model" may be in my top five. then "beyond the sunrise" happens

try the "only stuart songs" version of fold your hands!

Jonathan David

this song is a tuneless trainwreck and exactly the reason I stopped listening to this band

try the "only stuart songs" version of fold your hands!

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, November 27, 2018 1:23 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i really love "the wrong girl" tho!

but yeah all the stuart stuff on fold your hands is strong. i also love how often he trades vocals with stevie on this album

i binged last night and listened to almost all of their post DCW material. the only one i haven't listened to yet is Girls in Peacetime. in general i'm finding the later material to be much, much more patchy, like only a song or two from each album that really grabs me.

life pursuit, in particular, was a weird listening experience. there were all these risks taken, and not any overt disasters, really - so why did it all just drift by? it's the only full length that doesn't have any representation on my ballot so far, but i'm going to revisit before submitting.

not enough has been said about their "how to solve our human problems" series, which i find more compelling than pretty much anything they released between 2005-2015. it's also patchy, i think, but it seems to represent more of a new direction for them - more electronic and dance oriented.

"wrong girl" is my favorite non-stuart song on there for sure. but imo it's the last B&S with several top notch stuart songs on there. he reaches those heights again in places, but never so consistently.

Jonathan David

this song is a tuneless trainwreck and exactly the reason I stopped listening to this band

― Οὖτις, Tuesday

same until DCW, an album later

god "woman's realm" is the most perfect song

Are you coming or are you not?

i also think that part of my disenchantment with 2005-2017 era B&S is that so many of the lyrics seem to turn to how much stuart is mad at someone for slighting him, paired with enthusiasm for prayer. elements that have been part of the band since the beginning, to be sure, but in the earlier material he seemed more like he was uncomfortable being at a party, which i always found relatable. in the later material he seems like he hates the people he's partying with. and the churchy stuff seemed more subversive in the early material - it makes me think of a nun dreaming about having hot sex or something. in the later material it's more like "try prayer. seriously. it could work for you."

anyway i'm probably reading too much into all that stuff but in general i feel like things were a little more subtle and subversive in their older stuff

karl if you end up trying the life pursuit again: it's all about "dress up in you"

it can be hard to see the trees for the forest on that record, it's so extroverted and kinda in your face about it which makes it a v unusual belle & sebastian record

i am also considering voting for "another sunny day" and "we are the sleepyheads" but honestly i probably don't have the room

i love the life pursuit, and i'll be voting for dress up in you and a couple others

"We Are the Sleepyheads" is *nuts*, I remember playing that for a metalhead muso co-worker and his ears perked up throughout.

"Mornington Crescent" is their best closer imho. Also, re: non-Stuart songs on Fold Your Hands, "Family Tree" is lovely.

Another Sunny Day is the one that leapt out at me from Life Pursuit. I didn't realise how well I knew it until I listened again via Brad's playlist. It's a beautiful song, with some killer (mostly 15 syllable) lines but it's a bit B&S join the dots, somehow.

'We took the evening ferry over to the peninsula' might just be the perfect Murdoch line and absolutely kills me.

i missed brad's playlist! er...i can't seem to find it

hold up

here you go karl https://open.spotify.com/user/unbornwhiskey/playlist/4EvRvOmaS4T7qjh6kEkJjI?si=_cwi_GFdRRS-SE82nZSgFA

I also like that they seemed to feel the need to drop an f-bomb in as many songs as possible on that record

idk I thought Stuart Murdoch was an embarrassed p***hound who surrendered to his natural tendencies from DCW onward.

thanks!
xp

The Wrong Girl is their nadir afaic, from that out of tune cowbell in the introduction to the straining, meandering vocal, it was the moment I got off the bus.

Stop the TWATTYBUS I want to get off.