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

I originally said the end of 10th December (in Alaska (?) or wherever GMT-12 timezone is), which is itself well over 48 hours away. But if people are still tinkering towards the middle of the week I've promised to wait till they're done. Bigger ballot pool > punctuality.

Calculating the final results will take only a few seconds after that, but I probably need a day or two to cater for the tracks at the start of the countdown, which are currently, er, oscillating wildly with every new ballot. (The whole list is in flux really: almost nothing is more than a few points clear of its rivals. Later contributors can still make a big difference.)

My ballot will be in on the 10th. I meant to spend this time listening to the material I was less familiar with but, finally catching up with DCW aside, I've mostly gotten hung up on listening to the I already knew and loved but hadn't heard in a long time.

"almost nothing is more than a few points clear of its rivals"

because there are so many outstanding ones. it's really hard to choose between them

sent! could go on revising forever though

I'm tempted to draw up an alternative top 30. I bet it's nearly as good.

I feel like a good (possibly the best) ballot would just be everything from the first two albums and first three EPs, in by order. Minus a track.

Voted. No spoilers, but my number one is a track from the past 3 years.

also voted

voted

Ooooh, just noticed these (and more, possibly) juicy new ballots in my mailbox. This is feeling like a pretty strong turnout overall. Fab.

Ballot sent

I meant to spend this time listening to the material I was less familiar with but, finally catching up with DCW aside, I've mostly gotten hung up on listening to the I already knew and loved but hadn't heard in a long time.

Same

Voted

Big shake-up in my spreadsheet recent votes. A few tracks have shot up 20-or-so places and the top ten has thoroughly jiggled itself about. Fascinating.

That's 36 votes now, and 128 tracks selected.

I've taken a liking to crytosicko's "We're not terrific, but we're com-POLL-tent" as a rollout thread title. Further puntastic suggestions are encouraged.

'AFTER recent votes", geez.

When is the official deadline?

I've promised to wait until at least Tuesday. So...within the next 48 hours or so would be good.

nice,

I know POLL puns are de rigueur for rollout thread titles but "Could we please be objective?" would be highly appropriate

Yes, I like it!

If I could do just one near perfect poll I'd be happy

get me away from here, i'm POLL-ing

Could we please be objective cause the other POLLS are queuing up behind us.

lol

that's perfect lmao

I really like Stevie but so far the poll I'm working on doesn't seem to reflect it. I think my top for him is "Jonathan David" at #12.

This is the most excited I've been for a poll roll-out in a long while. I wouldn't bet on any more than like 5 songs being definitely making the top 30.

XP: I'm in similar situation re Stevie.

Actually, if "Jonathan David" doesn't end up placing in the top 30-40-50-whatever, I may have to start the countdown from wherever it ends up. I'll *make* it 'place', dammit! LOL. It's interesting how divisive that song (and Stevie himself?) seems to be; always imagined its brilliance was self-evident.

I think the problem with Stevie is that he fancies himself a folky 70s singer-songwriter guy, which I'll have none of. But when he's there as a counterpoint to Stuart, he's completely on it and I can't love it enough.

'to be myself completely' is peak stevie imo

Could we please be objective cause the other POLLS are queuing up behind us.

― Alba, Monday, December 10, 2018 12:39 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a thousand times this

I did not like "Jonathan David" until around the 37th listen. I was DJ'ing when it came out, and upon playing it without previewing, my first reaction of "what is this mess?" The logic of its 37 sections makes perfect sense now. At first it felt like a trailer for Forever Changes.

"Jonathan David" in the top 10 for me

'to be myself completely' is peak stevie imo

yup, the only stevie track that made my ballot

I just sent a revised ballot if you dinnae plug in my first ballot from 2.5 hours earlier

In 2001/2002 I found a bunch of rare B&S (or pre-B&S) on audiogalaxy. I remember a cool cover of a Spanish song with a title something like mina ména (obviously way off). I also remember a cool 6-7 minute instrumental number.

one night extension here as well, just got in from work travel.

Are you sure it was them? I seem to remember there was a lot of mislabeled stuff on Audiogalaxy.

xpost

mina ména (obviously way of

Was it this Os Mutantes cover?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGfT3qg6p_Y

yes

Looks like a consensus is emerging re thread title. Nice!

FlopsyDuck: I was asleep when your emails arrived, but revisions are easy either way. Actually, I'm still happy to adjust week-old ballots if others want it.

campreverb: rightio!

Amusing that I initially said that "I thought there was mainly antipathy [to B&S] on ILX, but it seems that's not necessarily the case." With a few ballots still promised we might even approach...50.

Way before my time on ILX but I understand that there were a sizeable group of ex-Sinister people on here, enthusiasm on one side led to a backlash from others, an unspoken truce was declared where nobody talked much about b+s because it was still contentious and anyway people had moved on, and then after another decade and a half here we are

This is... much harder than initially thought. About 80% done, already pushing 40 tracks.

Ok, nearly done but almost forgot that I know one of the people in their songs (friend of SM's wife). Here he is dragging her out to dance on her eponymous song around 3:20:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XIWLMgXJBY

Better angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vazADLsUSiQ

mad how much i love that song but still couldn't fit into a top thirty, what a catalogue!

Ballot submitted!!! I didn’t think I had it in me.

Awesome! But was that emailed? I don't seem to have received anything half an hour later...

got it...just need to clean up for the poll runner.
cutting to 30 was brutal. surprisingly found I like the weird stuff like a century of elvis/beyond the sunrise.