CD Project Thing #17 - Belle and Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian - "Tigermilk"

What does one say about probably his favorite album from probably his favorite band? I guess by saying that it's a really amazing album, at the very least the greatest debut album ever (even though almost nobody heard it at the time), but nothing I say can really do it justice. It was originally recorded quickly and cheaply (using the budget for a single) and released only on 1000 vinyl copies. Luckily, their next two albums did well enough that this got a re-release on CD afterwards.

The album is really just astoundingly good, I think. Some of Stuart Murdoch's best songs and production that's lo-fi (but not TOO lo-fi) just makes it hard not to fall in love with this band (of course, somebody not in love with this band might have a different feeling on it). Pretty much everything they've ever done is great, but I don't think they ever topped this.

Belle and Sebastian - "If You're Feeling Sinister"

For their second album, Belle and Sebastian switched to a new label (Jeepster, my favorite label ever), added a member (Sarah Martin), and upgraded the production level a bit, but besides all that it's really like a second volume of "Tigermilk". Once again, it's all Stuart songs, and they all sound, for lack of a better term, like Belle and Sebastian songs. I think many people consider this the best B&S album, and it's really good, although I don't quite think it has the charm of "Tigermilk".

Belle and Sebastian - "Push Barman To Reopen Old Wounds" (Disc 1)

The summer after "Sinister", Belle and Sebastian released 3 4-track UK only EPs. Later on, they'd be collected into a box, and still later they'd comprise the first disc of this 2 disc collection. If you want to divide Belle and Sebastian history into three phases (and I'm writing this, and I do), these EPs are the link between the first Stuart-dominated phase and the second democratic phase. The majority of the songs still sound like old-school B&S, but there are songs like "Lazy Line Painter Jane" (which features very unB&S guest vocals from Monica Queen) and "A Century Of Elvis" (where Stuart David tells a story over the backing track to a song that would come out on the next EP) that serve as a sign that things are about to change...

Belle and Sebastian - "The Boy With The Arab Strap"

As far as I can remember, the first time I ever heard Belle and Sebastian was seeing the video for "Is It Wicked Not To Care" (sung by Isobel Campbell) on 120 Minutes. I fell right in love, but while doing research was very surprised to find out that most B&S songs had a guy singing. I didn't know it at the time, but this was the beginning of the much-debated "democratic" phase of the band. On this album, Stuart Murdoch loosened his control of the band and other members started doing some writing and lead singing. This album ended up still being mostly Stuart songs, but about a third of it consisted of songs by Stevie, Isobel, and Stuart David. And while these aren't necessarily bad songs, they didn't sound just like Stuart's, and thus this album doesn't have the same consistent sound that people loved from the first two. That said, I do still like it and have a soft spot in my heart for it as my first B&S album ever, but I'm long past thinking it's their best.

Belle and Sebastian - "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant"

My choice for "worst B&S album" (although it's still better than the best album of many bands), "FYHCYWLAP" continues the democratic thing from "Arab Strap", but with songs that aren't near as good (including the Isobel/Stevie song "Beyond The Sunrise" that's often considered the worst B&S song ever). The band was in some turmoil at this point, Stuart David quit, and most of Stuart Murdoch's songs sound like B&S-by-numbers, the kind he seems to be able to do in his sleep, with no real spark or innovation. It later came out that the band was close to breaking up, but luckily they didn't, since some of their best days were still ahead...

Belle and Sebastian - "Push Barman To Reopen Old Wounds" (Disc 2)

But before we go ahead, we have to go back, at least for half a disc. Disc two of "Push Barman" consists of the last 4 Jeepster EPs. The first, "This Is A Modern Rock Song", came out a few months after "Arab Strap" did. The title song, which was apparently considered for "Tigermilk" before being held off, is one of my favorite B&S songs, and the EP is also notable for "Slow Graffiti", the first song they did for a soundtrack. The second EP is "Legal Man", which came out just before "FYHCYWLAP" (and which will always make me think of my trip to England, because it came out when I was there). It was their biggest chart success up to that point, but it's a very weird release, the only one ever not to have a real Stuart song ("Legal Man" is a 60s-pop sounding song with a ton of people singing, and the other two tracks are a Stuart David song and an instrumental). Finally, "Jonathan David" and "I'm Waking Up To Us" (the meanest song ever) followed the next summer and are both pretty excellent, a nice comeback after the previous sub par album.

Belle and Sebastian - "Storytelling"

This was meant to be the soundtrack to the Todd Solantz movie of the same name. However, the movie ended up being horrible, as it seems Belle and Sebastian's experience did, too - he ended up only using 6 minutes of Belle and Sebastian music in the movie. Not being ones to let good music go to waste, they came up with this, which was mostly songs that were supposed to be in the movie, although at least one is apparently more about the experience of making it. I hesitate to call it an album, despite it's 18 tracks, because if you think of it as an album it's a clear disappointment - only 6 of the tracks have vocals (and 2 of those are very short), and the rest is filled out my instrumentals (some basically different versions of the same songs) and dialog clips. What I do is is, instead of thinking of it as a weak album, I think of it as a really strong EP, which it is. It's the end of the democratic era, so you still get songs by Sarah and Stevie among those 6, but they're some of their best ones. "Scooby Driver" is one of the most fun and energetic Belle and Sebastian songs, and you wish it was longer than the minute it is. Despite not being a major addition to the catalog, it's nice to have, especially since Belle and Sebastian haven't really sounded quite like this since.

Belle and Sebastian - "Step Into My Office, Baby" (UK Import)

It's the start of a new Belle and Sebastian era! New label, new producer, new sound, and (the reason this release exists) new policy on singles. On Jeepster, the band never released album tracks as singles. Once they signed to Rough Trade, I guess they started to play the game a little more, and so non-album singles became a thing of the past. The A-side sounds pretty unlike any B&S song to this point, but I'll get to that with the album. The two b-sides seem to have been recorded just for the single (since they have different production credits than the album) and are decent, but nothing to write home about. I guess it's a little better in retrospect, but at the time I was pretty disappointed by this - I guess there really is a difference between a "ep track" and a "b-side", at least for B&S.

Belle and Sebastian - "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"

Through most of the first two phases, Belle and Sebastian basically had a reputation of being shy, sensitive dorks who played music for other shy, sensitive dorks. It wasn't really totally true, but it's true that the music DID sound like that, and they didn't really give interviews or tour much at all, so it stuck. Then, bam, everything changed. They'd lost two members (who, it turns out, were the reason they didn't tour much), they got a new label, they decided to give interviews, they decided to issue singles, and they got a new producer, Trevor Horn, who'd previously been known for, like, Tatu and other pop crap. People were scared.

And it's true, the album sounds very little like old Belle and Sebastian. This is somewhat due to the production style, but it also seems like the band is just having fun for the first time in a long time. It's poppy, it's playful, and while I don't like it as much as the heights of the first era, it's quite good. It's probably not a coincidence that at the same time, Stuart seems to have taken some control back. You still see 1 or 2 songs an album sung by somebody else, but it's not a third of the album like it was on the previous ones. Different voices are fine, but a band needs a front man, and Stuart fits that bill.

Belle and Sebastian - "I'm a Cuckoo" (UK Import)

The second single off the album, the b-sides here are a decent brand new song, a Stevie song that was cut from the album at the last moment, and the first-ever B&S remix - "I'm A Cuckoo By The Avalanches". It does exactly what my favorite remixes do - the vocals are basically left untouched, but the music is changed, in this case to African tribal instruments. I'm not going to say it's better than the original, but it's certainly interesting.

Belle and Sebastian - "Books" EP (Japanese Import)

This gets called an EP, although it's really just a "Wrapped Up In Books" single, the only difference being that "Books" is the second track instead of the first. The song that DID get the a-side spot is "Your Cover's Blown", called in the NME "an indie Bohemian Rhapsody", and it's not far off. It's one of their longer and stranger songs, but it's very entertaining, and was pretty stunning when they did it live on their last tour. The two other tracks on the normal version of this ep are a pretty good new track and a mostly-instrumental dance remix called "Cover (Version)"

This was the first ever B&S release to be different in different markets - the Australian version had 1 extra track, and this Japanese one has two: a Japanese version of "I'm A Cuckoo" and a slow version of their cover of "Final Day" which was originally released on a comp. Neither is earth shattering, but, hey, I had to get it, that's what makes me a completist.

Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (With Bonus DVD)

The most recent Belle and Sebastian album, it's a little more rocking than DCW (and there's a bit of a 70s sounding influence to some of the tracks), and there's almost a complete lack of strings (which is a big change for a band that used to have 2 string players in the band itself (and used a ton of guest players)). Overall, though, it follows the DCW formula - poppy, fun, Stuart-heavy. And like DCW, it's hardly my favorite B&S album, but it's not half bad, either. I'm working on it now, but it's almost sure to hit near the top of my "best of 2006" list.

Belle and Sebastian - "The Blues Are Still Blue" (Australian Import)

This is an Australian-only cd that combines all the tracks from the "Funny Little Frog" and "The Blues Are Still Blue" UK Singles. This wouldn't be that big a deal (although I'd like it anyway, since I'd always take a 8 track cd over two 4 track cds), but starting with this album the band put different tracks on the 7" singles than on the CD, which means there were two tracks on here that are really rare to have on CD. Of the 6 b-sides on here, 1 is the song they recorded for the "Help: A Day In The Life" comp, one is a cover of "Whiskey In The Jar", and 4 are outtakes from the album. 3 are not too impressive (including a Stevie song and a Sarah song), but "Meat and Potatoes", the band's very first song about kinky sex, probably should have made the album...

Belle and Sebastian - "The White Collar Boy" (UK Import)

Third and final single from "The Life Pursuit", and most recent B&S release to date. There are two b-sides, one by Stevie and one by Sarah. Seems pretty clear that there's been some sort of realization about where songs by them belong, eh?