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

"I'll Be Your Pilot" just came on the radio and I think I should've voted for it. So lovely.

One post while I'm near the computer. Incidentally, can anyone see what the first photo depicts? (from 'TIJAMRS' sleeve--I've between staring at it for years.)

15. (TIE)

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Slow Graffiti
From This Is Just a Modern Rock Song (1998)
At Bowlie Weekender, 1999
Points: 486
Votes: 23
#1 Votes: 2

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Dirty Dream Number Two
From The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998)
Lance Bangs' Athens video
Points: 486
Votes: 26
#1 Votes: 2

love both of these songs

Dirty dream placing in the right spot, what a great song.

slow graffiti was top 3 for me, something about murdoch's delivery of 'i stay in to defrost the fridge' destroys me

I had these songs at #14 and #18, so this is about right I suppose. "Slow Graffiti" we first heard on the Acid House OST (and lyrically it was obviously written for the film), it was a Big Deal when it was announced for TIGGERJAMMYS cos clearly this was the greatest song ever and the one to bring B&S to the masses, didn't quite work out like that but I look back on my teenage idealism fondly so don't give me no grief. The first time I ever saw them live was Bowlie Weekender, positioned myself front row early on and in the buildup I thought my heart was gunna burst. Then when they walked out and the first piano chords and the first lines of the first song, "keep for daaaays upon"... My heart did burst and I've honestly not been the same since.

Donno why I only had this at #18, mainly this rollout has been reiterating to me that I am clearly an idiot.

lol have some of the same regrets

I like the kind of B&S song template Slow Graffiti represents, one that begins with a slow acapella or with minimal instrumentation and only really gets going after a verse or two (the defining ones of these maybe being The State I Am In and The Stars of Track and Field)

I completely forgot about the Acid House connection! (Somewhat obviously.)

I was going to put a tentative predicted top 5 which would have been Slow Graffiti / TSIAI / TIJAMRS / LOTMDR / LLPJ in some order or other, but wow was I off-base there

Slow Graf was my #2.

I like the kind of B&S song template Slow Graffiti represents, one that begins with a slow acapella or with minimal instrumentation and only really gets going after a verse or two (the defining ones of these maybe being The State I Am In and The Stars of Track and Field)

― Dan S, Saturday, December 15, 2018 3:50 PM (forty-one minutes ago)

Or hey why not do it 3 albums in a row: "It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career" lol

I think "I Fought In A War" even fits into this continuity, it mibbe doesn't start pure acapella but otherwise I think it fits. So this is a genuine deliberate move! What's next? "Step Into My Office Baby" ok nevermind

it's only been through reviewing for this poll that I'm now realizing my affinity for these kinds of songs, I think a lot of them were all on my ballot

If She Wants Me was pretty high on my ballo. I had completely forgotten about its existence until this poll.

Exactly the same for me. It's just not an easy song for me to remember by the title

Slow Graffiti is the first song in the rollout where I think I really missed the boat. I did my ballot from memory, and the song title didn't ring a bell at all so I left it off, but wow what a song.

I think that moment came for me with Your Cover's Blown. never heard it before, but it is amazing

Slow Graffiti was my #1. From Stuart's lead vocal, to Stevie's backups, to the rhythm, and the strings. It's the complete package. Until now, I had no clue it was written for a movie. It sounds like it could have been written about any of the characters/situations in Stuart's universe at the time.

It's great. It was high on my ballot too. A lot of people who voted for it placed quite high, such that it bounced around a lot. Before the very last ballots came in it was actually in the top ten--I remember changing the number I'd prematurely written in the image!

Here's a final 'Saturday' post while America, at least, is still experiencing Saturday. Leaving three for Sunday...

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14. Stay Loose
From Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
Live at Benicassim, 2004
Points: 489
Votes: 26
#1 Votes: 4

YES. I also ranked this at #14. One of their best genre exercises.

The twin guitarwork is fucking unreal

From the quiet acapella part to the end is all fantastic, reminds me of The Who in a weird way, and the verses are perfect Squeeze pastiche.

HOLY SHIT

i had given up on "stay loose" placing, the best song in the WORLD

"dirty dream" was my no. 1 but that's beside the point (it's better than every sinister song)

(i'm just kidding that's probably not true but i still think it's the objectively perfect b&s song)

4 #1s! Three other ilxors are pretty cool

I threw a bucket load of points at "Stay Loose", for some reason this fucking dress up shit means more to me than "Your Cover's Blown" or I dunno most of their latter career.

In other news I woke up at ungodly hour and listened to The Life Pursuit. I had "Another Sunny Day" and "Dress Up In You" on my ballot when it was down to 31, then drunkenly decided to ditch them both in some sort of misguided attempt at PURITY and added... "Big John Shaft" in the last spot? That can't be right...
'Another Sunny Day" is phenomenal and should've made the cut. "Dress Up In You" I was enjoying, it resolved itself perfectly and oh wait we're still going? It fair outstayed it's welcome. And nothing else on this album really stood out. "Funny Little Frog" was better than I remembered, still, naw.

That statue:

http://www.kelvingrovepark.com/heritage-tigress.html

Aaaaaaaah! Thanks!

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12-A (Another tie) The Fox in the Snow
From If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
Live at Barrowlands, with bonus coughing fit.
Points: 509
Votes: 26
#1 Votes: 1

Missing definite article innit. Whoops.

Dirty Dream Number Two deserved an even higher placement, it's indeed perfect.
Never noticed Stay Loose, I guess I don't understand "genre exercises" (though I did discover your cover's blown miaou miaou with pleasure).
The Fox in the Snow... so finally we have a track from IYFS, I'm not surprised it's this one. But it's also the arch-fragile B&S song. Some hurting memories with this one, and for my ex even more probably. For a long while I could not listen to it, now I find it beautiful again.

Sinister! The appearance of If She Wants Me has meant at least one of my 20 dead certs isn't actually a dead cert after all. I can't believe that there's a third song on Sinister in the same bracket of unpopularity as Mayfly and The Boy Done Wrong Again so I reckon I must have miscounted Arab Strap instead: no Simple Things is my revised guess. I guess I only had it at #30 so I can't complain.

Have no idea what Sinister track will be highest. Could be one of at least three. Am guessing that The State I Am In and TBWTAS will be the top 2 not very confident of that!

Nothing about DD#2 surprises me, which is I guess why I don't love it. Stay Loose, on the other hand, well, I guess I just have my prejudices when it comes to which strands of genre pastiche we'll accept and I love it to bits.

The "Boy On The Bike" verse of Fox hits pretty hard because I started racing bikes and then became ill and needed treatment and then once "healthy" tried returning to racing and realized that my treatment sucked much more life out of me than I initially realized. Painted the song in an entirely new light for me.

What a run of songs! The longer this goes on the more it becomes apparent that my ballot was essentially arbitrary.

I remember being surprised by "DD#2" the first time I listened to TWATTYBUS: the sudden quasi-orchestral immensity of the first few bars alone likely induced an audible 'whoa!'

And there's my #2. "Fox in the Snow" affects me more than anything else in their catalog, perfect pairing of music and lyrics

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12-B (Tie)
Me and the Major
From If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
Live in Rio, 2001
Points: 509
Votes: 24
#1 Votes: 2

I'll post #11 in a few hours and then get back to a decent pace to finish things on Monday.

Me and the Major ended up being my top ranked Sinister track, which I wouldn't have guessed prior to relistening. I love the way it ends.

Both #12s too high for me, Clive

Isn't the next one #10 ? Otherwise I ask that you start a new thread with the correct numbers, and we'll pretend to discover the ranking again.
Can't hide my pleasure to see IYFS "haters" complain at IYFS high placement :D (My top-5 was IYFS tracks so I'm a main culprit)
Me and the Major has this intoxicating fast-paced free-rolling piano speed that I love on the album.
There's very few left now. I predict Sleep the Clock Around is next.

Oh wait, actually you went 14, 12, 12.

both perfect songs, the way 'me and the major' spins out in to the 'yeah the snow is falling' refrain is transcendent.

XP: LOL. Yeah, the other ties are similar.

Slow Graffiti is fantastic and I love that the emotion in the lines from “It doesn’t matter...” to “...it’s worse to wake up with her falling round the room” isn’t lessened by having “I stay in to defrost the fridge” in the middle of it.

I still remember the first time I heard The Fox in the Snow, being startled by the third line, "Cause the word out on the street is you are starving"

God I love the stuttery harmonica at the beginning of "Me and the Major."

I always kind of mentally mix it in my mind with the Housemartins' "Me and the Farmer."

That said, it's one of 4 Sinister songs I didn't vote for and so is "Fox." But I think in part I felt embarrassed to vote for all 10 Sinister songs, I can't deny I like this better than some songs I voted for (like "Stay Loose," sorry fans)