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

Judy is only #11?!!
Judy where did you go wrong?!

Cuckoo is catchy, sure, but one of these (remaining) things is not like the others....

I thought maybe I would kick Cuckoo out of the top 10 but then I listened to it again

Perhaps I'm easily amused but the declaration, in a Scottish accent, that B&S "have no time for dumbfucks and fucknuggets" has had me chuckling like an idiot for several hours now.

Here are some fun facts which may or may not help with predictions:

The forty-nine first-place votes (3 ballots were unranked) were distributed across 27 different tracks in total. "Stay Loose" has received the greatest number (4) of first-place votes so far, but nothing in the top ten exceeds that number. In fact, #1 received fewer such votes and another track received none at all!

so "stay loose" is the true winner, makes sense

LOL. Wouldn't rule out a tie, but yeah, basically.

Sounds like we can just end the poll now. Great job everyone

Judy at #11 is a dick slap

Monday has arrived almost everywhere so best get this done. I'll return in an hour or two and see if anyone's about...

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10. Sleep the Clock Around
From The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998)
Live at Lowlands, 2006
Points: 583
Votes: 33
#1 Votes: 1

I'm here! And that was my #1. So glad I pushed it into the top 10.

I remember when I first heard it in radio session form it didn't do much for me but it opened up so much in the album version.

"And the memory will shine"

YES

I love the motorik (sorry) pulse of this one. My #3 and a song that's grown a lot in my estimation over the years

Would love to stay up for the entire top 10, but it's 1:30a here in the midwest states and I'm to bed soon

I'm going to start fairly slooowly, with the US in mind. Might still be at #7 or something by dawn. :)

this is pretty close to the most dead time of day for ilm with it being middle of the night in the us

'sleep the clock around' is lovely but i wasn't quite expecting it to make top 10. between it and the title track i always think of boy with the arab strap as their electric piano album, although it's not really as prominent on the rest of the album

Love it when the bagpipes kick in, need more bagpipes in pop.

Never read this before, Stuart Murdoch
on Sleep the Clock Around:

"That song was about walking over the brow of a hill, away from the two people I loved most, when I had betrayed them somewhat: after they cast me out of their confidence and out of the cafe. So it’s a song that cries out for recovery."

♥️

Aww, that's lovely. StCA is a song that's become part of me, molecular.

I don't think I've ever heard the background sound effects on this used anywhere else - the little burbles and whirrs. They sound like the dreams of mouldering instruments.

That's brilliant, yes.

Assume they're Chris Geddes's work. He hasn't been mentioned enough on this thread.

His work is so understated yet utterly crucial to their sound.

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9. The Boy With the Arab Strap
From The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998)
Groovy, meandering rendition at Glastonbury, 2015
Points: 623
Votes: 32
#1 Votes: 3

I can barely even remember what I voted for now. Apart from perhaps "Judy" or "Fox" any of the last dozen could plausibly have been on my shortlist.

Ooh, thought that would be higher. Maybe we've all heard it to much.

That a song THIS good could be number nine in a discography is quite a thing.

So, which song is going to be their "Hey Bulldog"?

I think this was my #2. Every time I play it I have to resist dancing like a loon to it. But then think, fuck it and go for it.

This poll is reminding me how much I love this band. Thanks Nag.

:)

I'll wait another hour or so for the next one. Really don't want to rush too far ahead of the western hemisphere...

Too low. The Boy With The Arab Strap is my #1.

Naming an album and a song after another band is just another way B&S have managed to confuse me over the years. Others: having their own eponymous song, putting photographs of people on the covers who for a few years I (a casual fan) thought were actually in the band, having too many members, etc.

Assuming that's the band Arab Strap in the image for this one?

We used to dance often to "The Boy..." in the early 2000s.

XP: Yeah, photographed in approximately that same era IIRC.

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8. The Stars of Track and Field
From If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
Amateur choral performance by Flash Chorus of Durham, North Carolina!
Live at the Barbican (audio track)
Points: 711
Votes: 35
#1 Votes: 1

Belle & Sebastian Coe, see. Brilliant.

:D

Enjoying the rollout NNN!

ah the points are really starting to jump now

Make a new cult everyday

Never a big fan of "Sleep the Clock Around" but love the other two tracks. Thought "Stars of Track and Field" had a good chance to be #1

first B&S song i ever heard, and I can still remember the feeling, something akin to "i have found my new favorite band"

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7. If You're Feeling Sinister
From If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
At Austin City Limits, 2014
Points: 723
Votes: 34
#1 Votes: 2

People don't reference this song enough! Glad it did so well. The playground noise is a weird masterstroke; "the vicar or whatever" similarly.

In a discography full of prettiness, this is their prettiest song.

the playground noise gives it this weird sense of 'passing through' if that makes any sense? i really like the effect it has, it's sort of breezy

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6. I'm a Cuckoo
From Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
Original promo video
Avalanches remix, audio track
Points: 728
Votes: 31, including 2 votes for the Avalanches remix.
#1 Votes: 2

awesome

brilliant song, voted for it, the Avalanches remix is overrated

Still good though.

Great song. That moment when the brass section goes into overdrive is deliciously over-the-top and perfect.

XP: Sinister, the album, has so many songs with these long melodic phrases, and the title track is a good example:
"He'll try in vain to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever" comes out in one long stream where you keep expecting the melody to resolve but it keeps pushing on just a little bit further.

(see also: "Well if I remain passive and you just want to cuddle then we should be ok and we won't get in a muddle cause we're seeing other people, at least that's what we say we are doing")