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

Also it's greatly improved if you imagine it really is just about the hazards of wage labor

I'm with you, Chinaski -- I know it's supposed to be in character and all, but it's just kinda ham-fisted (and musically, a bit too disjointed for my liking -- like a bunch of set-pieces)

I'm not in favour of any goofiness but the I was burned out after Thatcher section is strong.

http://i67.tinypic.com/35jc77o.jpg

31. Wrapped Up in Books
From Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
Original promo video
Points: 300
Votes: 21
#1 Votes: 0

all the arrangements on DCW are so good, i love when the jangley motorik groove suddenly transitions into that brief piano & reeds section

Wonderful album, high on my ballot

Nice work on the image for that one.

I'm very much a 'prefer the early stuff' fan but I love this song, great rhythm guitar and some of their best vocal harmonies. Also I noticed from going through some of their videos that both this and the one for Lazy Line Painter Jane feature someone using a book as a pillow, I'm convinced that has some sort of significance.

30 down and 30 to go. Three more now, I think. Can figure out how to make things a bit more orderly for the end of the countdown after I've had some sleep...

http://i66.tinypic.com/vgj60l.jpg

30. Women's Realm
From Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000)
At KCRW, 2003
Points: 305
Votes: 21
#1 Votes: 0

Some things I've learned quite a bit about in recent days because of B&S:
- Mike Piazza
- Eucalypts in California
- Women's Realm magazine

Step into my Office Baby: specifically a pastiche of “Good Vibrations”? That’s the way I heard it once I got past the lyrics. One of those rare pop songs where the lyric stood out on first listen.

"pastie" and "century of fakers" are way too low

"women's realm" about right though, i love that song

"you're just a baby" should've been top ten imo

string arrangement on this one is ridic

I hope 'To Be Myself Completely' pops up, although it's unlikely.

One thing this exercise has clarified for me is that FYHCYWLAP is...bitchin'

http://i64.tinypic.com/ff8nsm.jpg
29. Don't Leave the Light on Baby
From Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000)
Live in Rio, 2001
Points: 310
Votes: 17
#1 Votes: 0

hell yeah

couldn't find room for it on my ballot but a great song buried in that first side

Love that moment when the backing vocals finally come in on this track. This is the only FYHCYWLAP that made my ballot.

I've never been one to emphasize the importance of good lyrics, but B&S is a band that really does benefit from having good ones.

There's Too Much Love is approximately 20 times better than the coasting Women's Realm you lunatics. Glad to see Don't Leave the Light on Baby make it though.

5th in the row I haven't voted for.

I bloody love Women's Realm. It'd be good to put some kind of concordance together, to track the different themes and locations in their songs. This has the classic dance/sing like you're on your own, and, I've always linked the 'Indian part of the town' to the taxi driver in TBWTAS.

"There's Too Much Love" is the only Fold Your Hands track I squeezed onto my ballot, and only at the last minute. Which now seems insane. Clearly my biggest mistake was failing to propose a ballot size of 100 slots at the outset.

B&S coast so beautifully.

Clearly my biggest mistake was failing to propose a ballot size of 100 slots at the outset.

― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, December 14, 2018 7:38 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree that you were wrong

"women's realm" is just kinda "dirty dream no. 3" so i get thinking it's coasting but also i need thirty more of those songs please

The arrangements on Don't Leave the Light on Baby are pure Moon Safari. In a good way, obviously.

"Woman's Realm" reminds me more of "The Boy With the Arab Strap" (the song) with the electric piano and handclaps.

There also aren't enough songs where Stuart trades verses with Isobel (cf Women's Realm).

The clustering by era in this stretch is quite marked...

http://i64.tinypic.com/23ijwbk.jpg

28. The Model
From Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000)
Live at Glastonbury, 2004
Points: 322
Votes: 19
#1 Votes: 1

wrapped up in books is way too low

le pastie is the other one i voted for from this stretch

oh good this is my actual favorite song from fold your hands

yup

is this the horniest B&S song

I may have slightly overrated The Model, but it's so charming. It must be the last from its album.

nah, on certain days i think it's the ultimate b&s song, though there are many other songs vying for that title

this is my favourite from fold your hands and i really should have voted for it. the constantly building and shifting string arrangement is fantastic. also stevie singing one line in every verse

the harpsichord definitely is twee as fuck.

The Model is amazing. That rush of words reminds me of that story about how Dylan thought nuclear war was coming so he just took all the stanzas he'd jotted down intended as starting points for various songs and just threw them all into A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall before it was too late.

also stevie singing one line in every verse

yeah this is such a cool move

to catch up with some stuff i missed:

- i like the life pursuit and i like this rollout a lot but imo "funny little frog" can't hang imo, not this high
- didn't vote for "piazza" but i think its charms are extremely obvious so i'm not mad
- i love how many people had "the rollercoaster ride" ascending their ballots during the voting period. me too! its effect is so subtle but when it hits you, it's devastating

i said that about "funny little frog" but i know when i hear it in the playlist i'm gonna think "ok this song is a jam"

"funny little frog" is ok but i'm shocked that it's probably the highest placing song from the life pursuit, unless "mornington crescent" is still to come which seems unlikely?

i don't know if i'd ever describe b&s lyrics as "good," there's always, always, always some dodgy or obvious rhyme even/especially in the classic stuff, but i think what makes it all work for me is the sensibility, that the band have literary aspirations but are never polished about it and are willing to follow an image around a corner but are also just gonna rhyme "on the rag" with "sleeping bag." it's part of their whole marriage of the mysterious and the incredibly ordinary, which, given murdoch's perspective, he would find incredibly ordinary things deeply mysterious

almost certainly not :( xp

afaict not a single song from Sinister has placed yet!