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

also seven or so out of its ten tracks have placed, more than any other album so far, and I expect at least one more to show up

I guess I see your point, though, that all but maybe one will end up lower on the list than any track from IYFS

I didn't vote for it but surely we've got She's Losing It to come as well as The State I Am In?

On what seem like dead certs to me I also count one more from Dog on Wheels EP, eight from IYFS, one more from Lazy Line EP, two from the Modern Rock Song EP, four from TBWTAS, and two from Dear Catastrophe Waitress.

Which makes 20!

XP: Tigermilk is certainly very popular. I guess I just thought it was a fraction more popular. :)

The albums poll asks this question more or less explicitly. Both appeared on the same number ballots (ie. nearly all of them) but IYFS's score was good 37% higher. "IYFS > Tigermilk" is a much more common sentiment than the opposite case. I just naively expected a slightly closer race.

* consults spreadsheet to gauge Alba's soothsaying skillz *

Okay, I think I'll restrict the rollout to a trickle over the weekend and conclude with the top ten on Monday (GMT), at an hour that's convenient to most of Europe and the Americas.

I was hoping for Middle Distance Runner to crack the top 15, one of Murdoch's best vocal performances, his high notes are killing me.
Comparatively, I don't really get Expectations: good strumming song but still a strumming song.

Okay, just a handful today. Starting with...

http://i66.tinypic.com/2exugix.jpg

20. This Is Just a Modern Rock Song
From This Is Just a Modern Rock Song (1998)
Original promo video
Points: 400
Votes: 23
#1 Votes: 1

Middle Distance Runner and Modern Rock Song I had pegged for the top 5, quite surprised, are we going to have a top 10 full of Sinister? Other ones I expected there are Slow Graffiti and The State I Am In, will be a travesty if neither if those in the top 10.

Fear that Middle Distance Runner suffers from being hidden away on a b-side, if it had been on IYFS I reckon it could be #1

Yeah, it would fit perfectly on IYFS. It's the song I've listened to the most since participating in this poll. I predict Slow Graffiti comes next.

My no.1. All time.

http://i68.tinypic.com/1sz2vk.jpg

19. She's Losing It
From Tigermilk (1996)
Live at Barrowlands
Points: 412
Votes: 25
#1 Votes: 0

inch for inch and pound for pound
who needs boys when there's lisa around?

some of my favourites just turned up. I love love love Your Cover's Blown and it's a shame B&S didn't do more funky rooms-within-rooms epics

she's losing it is perfect the whole way through, but i especially love the horns in the last chorus

and you can dance to it!

I like the juxtaposition of this concise jaunty thing at #19 with the sprawling slackness at #20.

"this is just a modern rock song" is such an outlier in their discography, i like it a lot but i'm glad they cut it from if you're feeling sinister

So tigers in bathtubs look like fish.

Since it's Christmas period I've been reading my C&H compilations so anytime I see the Tigermilk cover I think it's Hobbes.

I love contrast between the bombast of "Modern Rock Song" and the self-deprecating lyrics.
"I'm not as sad as Dostoevsky / I'm not as clever as Mark Twain"

It's also interesting to see the video links with these old songs, they had a very consistent visual aesthetic in the 90's. Plus, they all came out before youtube, so I had no idea these songs even had videos.

Yes! I'm not sure I ever saw 'Rock Song' or 'Fakers' before last week. (Unless they were on Fans Only and I just have a terrible memory--kinda likely.)

The one I was just about to post, however, represented my very first exposure to B&S.

http://i65.tinypic.com/20jo9k1.jpg

18. Dog on Wheels
From Dog on Wheels (1997)
Original promo video
Points: 413
Votes: 20
#1 Votes: 0

this is one that's fine but never been a favourite so i wasn't really expecting it'd be this high, especially over some of the stuff that placed recently

Yeah, I had it in my top 20 but it slipped out on relisten, not bad but not really special enough for me to vote for, think it might need to catch me in the right mood

YCB sat in my number one spot for so long. The groove in the beginning is so fucking amazing, and then there’s that paranoid “shoulda stayed home section,” where we start to recognize it as a song by the same band that did Arab Strap, and then that gorgeous final section where we’re firmly back in classic territory, but with a groove fit for the Chic organization.

It eventually fell to my number 2, but your cover’s blown is still mind-blowing

I voted for "Dog". Hard to be objective though. It's all caught with seeing the video and thinking "gee, the reality may just live up to the online hype--this is odder and less straight-up twee than the much of the stuff the indiepop list gets excited about!"

"than much of the stuff", rather.

Yeah, it would fit perfectly on IYFS. It's the song I've listened to the most since participating in this poll.

Same here re: Middle Distance Runner

Dog in Wheels was almost my #1.

Big uptick in points here and a track I suspect quite a few been anticipating. It'll have to be the last for today because I've spent far too long looking in vain for live footage with good audio and it's now 2AM. :)

http://i64.tinypic.com/f3zu6b.jpg

17. If She Wants Me
From Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
Youtube audio track
Points: 442
Votes: 21
#1 Votes: 0

i think this just missed my ballot but i'm delighted that this made it so high, i wasn't sure it was going to.

if i could just do one near perfect thing i'd be happy

as usual from a dear catastrophe waitress track the arrangements are incredible, especially those backing vocals in the last section

If she wants me was #18 on my ballot so...good work everyone

What a beautiful song. It might be my single favorite Murdoch vocal and the arrangement is perfect, with the guitar and organ and mellotron interplay.

“On second thoughts I'd rather hang around and be there with my best friend if she wants me”

yeah absolutely one of his best vocals, i love when his voice reaches up at the end of the verse

Such a lovely chorus.

I just realized after watching that live version that She's Losing It and Boy with the Arab Strap both have drums that swing in the same way -- Ringo comparisons upthread otm!!

'If She Wants Me" seems so effortless; I love DCW but a lot of it sounds like a band pretending to be a band that sounds like that, while "If She Wants Me" just sounds like a band that's always sounded like that

BTW someone complained earlier about the reliance on "and now here's a trumpet solo that follows the vocal line" and I can't deny that "Expectations" and "She's Losing It" both do this and yet I am utterly happy with both these trumpet solos. In "Expectations," maybe part of what makes it work is that the most breathtaking part of the vocal ("on top of the world again") isn't mirrored by the trumpet, that's left alone.

god let just one sinister track place ffs

Maybe the top ten will just be all the tracks on Sinister.

"If She Wants Me" is perfect, just an immaculate example of what I want from this band. I put it at no. 5, one spot below "I Could Be Dreaming" but somehow I am more disappointed with this placement than I was with ICBD so prolly should've switched them around. I certainly would've campaigned more for ISWM but I had some notion that it was already universally beloved. Oh well.

"If She Wants Me" should probably have been my #1 tbh, a literally perfect song and v important to me

Well, 21 votes implies that it is pretty beloved (almost half the ballots), but wasn't too high on most people's lists.
ISWM and Your Cover's Blown were the only post-2000 tracks in my top 10.

Forgot this one had the line: "You are too young to put all of your hopes in just one envelope".

Interesting that they didn't highlight this song at all (no video, no single) when DCW came out. Maybe they thought it was a little too on-brand at a time when they were trying to do the Trevor Horn led reinvention.

I went through this morning and learned how to play most of the songs on Tigermilk. As expected, all of the chords are super simple, which really emphasizes how perfect the arrangements and vocal melodies are.

oh nice! was there a specific place you grabbed the tabs from, or did you just work it out yourself?

Good to see a lot 9f love for If She Wants Me. definitely a highlight of the album

xpost Just at Ultimate Guitar, most (all?) are up there. Not the fancier ("fancier") flourishes, just the chords. I think The State I'm In was tuned down a half-step? Most were pretty standard, though, give or take a capo. But it was fun to hum along the tunes to these simple chords and hear how they all work out together.