does anyone still like Belle and Sebastian?

It's just that their best stuff is never the stuff on the albums. Lazy Line Painter Jane, Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie, Photo Jenny, I'm Waking Up To Us, Slow Grafitti... s'all good. Mostly.

i suspect in another month or two it'll be time for the yearly listen

maybe extend that sentiment to not wanting to own ANYTHING by a band that wrote "Seymour Stein"... some B&S stuff just goes way beyond dire.

The Tigermilk CD and another CDR with half album tracks and half b-sides is all you need.

I still like Belle & Sebastian. I have a lot of fondness for the Storytelling album and listen to it a lot. It is not a very B&S-y record, though.

I like the more eccentric synth stylings on Tigermilk best, but again, I'm not very passionate about them.

And I like Stevie Jackson's voice as well. Chickfactor is great.

in their weaker moments, belle and sebastian make me lament the death of nick drake in the same way that puddle of mudd and staind make me lament the death of kurt cobain.

*runs for cover*

next time: me, hstencil, and shakey mo will karaoke it over "century of elvis".

(the above 's from the ile what-are-you-listening-to-today thread, though as to whether mark s did dig 'em or not... go figure)

The absolute worst B&S song is the duet that Isobel and Stevie sing on Fold Your Hands...I think it's called "Before The Sunrise". That song is painfully bad, I often think of it as being one of the worst songs I've ever paid to own a copy of.

I look forward to the *sound* of future B&S records, even if the songs might be a bit flimsy. I liked Storytelling quite a bit and I got the (perhaps entirely mistaken) impression that it was a Stevie-driven thing.

Do you like Bernard Sumner too?

Or: the pinefox is to B&S as Roy Hattersley is to 'socialism'.

I first heard it at THE VICAR'S HOUSE. (The Old Vicarage - it's just inside THE PHOENIX PARK.) It sounded surprising - as in: 'jeez, what's this - a new B&S record??'. It seemed to me to have arrived very suddenly.

It has some fine tunes. That comment looks blander than it should. It really does have one or two fine tunes.

Swearing should be banned from pop song titles, though.

it also has samples of dialogue from the film. They are great, particularly the one about how great New Jersey is. Having heard these snippets of dialogue I feel that the best of the film has been extracted for me. Thanks B&S!

tigermilk = the first one
if you're feeling sinister = the 5000 spirits....
arab strap = hangman's beautiful daughter

and after that will come a bunch more, none that are actually TERRIBLE but nothing essential or particularly inspired.

B & S have become an easy target now that they are no longer making the same kind of music and having the impact that they had a few years ago, when they were as loved as deeply and pointlessly as any schmindie band had been for years.

They are what they are - an oasis of mostly gorgeous sweet, inoffensive and occasionally beautiful well-crafted pop at a time when there is little like it around, and they should be cherished for it.

ps: I think Stuart Murdoch ought to give up trying to combine management duties at Wimbledon with leading B & S - it's affecting his workload !

this is worth emphasising - they have become such a kickarse big fun live band it's almost hard to believe, especially if you saw ye liveliest awfulnesse that was their gig in Dublin's Olympia (looooong gaps between songs, manifestly bad vibes onstage, Stuart smashing his guitar, etc.).

that said, Isobel leaving loses the band an air of entertaining onstage mentalism.

A bit of 'Ashes To Ashes' at the beginning, too.

bastards! i just ripped off that same bassline. back to the drawing board.

ah well, time will tell.

Me and Stuart both read that, as does anybody with a keen interest in ecclesiastical ephemera.

Maybe I'll *start* to get interested now.

I think this may be the the best B&S song. Memory is an elusive wriggly character.

As long as Dan and I are around, you need never worry about this percentage coming true.

you mean Electronic Renaissance. There's a lot of hate for this song, but I happen to love it.

I'm worried abt B&S sounding like the Police.

I would actually urge haters to give this one a spin!

I did hear the Nipper playing some of it on his computer. But that was not really enough to make any kind of judgement, or any kinde of judgment.

Momus's post is very neat. His STARSKY & HUTCH idea is one of the most comic things I have seen him write. It is encouraging to see how much comic writing one can produce after being visually impaired. But my information on these matters, like my view of this screen, is hazy.

When Momus says that fans will like the way the record goes back to the 60s he is perhaps only half-right. There is, I believe, a long history of B&S fans complaining about B&S starting to sound like a 60s band. I do not think that early perceptions of B&S (1995-1999) had very much to do with the 1960s.

For once, it would not be very hard to check the accuracy or otherwise of this statement.

I am surprised that CRISIS did not refer to the old 80s comic about the Third World, as it was then not called.

I like Cozen's research, but don't know what he means about doppelgangers.

It is funny (where) the Vicar says that he is not hostile to the Police.

Album of the year, anyway.

Yup, on XFM.co.uk ("under Multimedia").

Truth, I started saying, "Oh God, more BS from B&S", but this new album is almost....happy-sounding.

so, have B&S blanded out their sound to appeal to cockfarmers who don't like B&S? time will tell.

And the weird thing about Dom's post is this comment from the band:

"The biggest studio creation and, ironically, one which Trevor was hardly involved in. This was the only song which wasn't fully written before we went into the studio. This was intentional, as we wanted a song Trevor could sing his teeth into. But Trevor didn't actually like the song. He did try a few things, but in the end, it was the band that saw it through. Tony Doogan mixed the song."

I don't think it's "blanded out" at all; except for those who think that any change is 'blanded' or 'sold-out' or whatever. That said, there is something very different about it (the singing maybe?) that makes me want to give up cockfarming altogether.

Roy Walker is the most disappointing song on the album for me. But give the album a few more listens, Chris, for I certainly found the songs in the middle (I'm A Cuckoo, You Don't Send Me and Wrapped Up in Books) grew on me after I'd repeated them a few times. I think it's prolly better than Fold Your Hands overall...I mean there were a couple of songs on FYH which were complete dross - Family Tree and Beyond the Sunrise.

I think you are wrong here. Stuart has the lead vocal on all the songs except Asleep on a Sunbeam and Roy Walker, as far as I can tell.

This is an extraordinary album, btw. I love it so much.

Damn right! This track is a winner! (among some pretty stiff spots elsewhere on the LP)

Does this song bear more than a slight resemblance to "The Boys Are Back In Town" or am I just being swayed by the line about going to Tokyo to listen to "Thin Lizzy-o"?

That is either a compliment or officially the most Geezaesthetic comment ever made about a pop record.

(I haven't heard it.)

it is 'The Boys Are Back In Town' altered enough to avoid legal hassles.

Gave it a couple more goes over the weekend, still saddened, and people are BOTM re: on broadway and Out in the country.

My favourite (for what it's worth) = the baseball-based acoustic number (don't have a track listing)

least favourite - either asleep on a sunbeam or stay loose

I'm not going so far as buying IC's album though, I've made that mistake before.

i) it does not really sound like it's by B&S; there are many bands in the world who don't sound like B&S so I don't really see the point of B&S becoming one of them.

ii) my suspicion is that the best thing about the record is the production - i.e. the songwriting is not very good. My opinion on this may change. This does not stop me enjoying the record.

I've not really made up my mind on this album.

I think I quite like it.

also on dear catastrophe waitress (the song) struan sings "town" and "clown" just like nico on femme fatale.

i think i like the album, but it does tail off a bit, esp if you find yourself caught in love which has horrendously trite lyrics.

I don't know whether the b&s practice of writing songs which are performed on Peel sessions or live but don't come out on records (or at least, don't for years and years) is something that a lot of bands do, but I don't get to hear about it coz I'm not into them as much, or whether b&s really do this more than anyone else. It is frustrating tho....I mean, I can understand why they delayed the release of Tigermilking on CD until '99 as the mystique surrounding the limited vinyl pressing did the band a lot of favours and stringing us along for so long contributed to b&s's success, but there is a bafflingly long list of unreleased songs. Ppl go on about Rhoda, presumably as it's the oldest, but what about Paper Boat, Magic of a Kind Word, Miraculous Technique? These 3 songs are better than most of the songs on DCW, IMHO.

The danger of doing this is that the live recording which we have heard becomes the standard in our minds and if the eventual release lacks something which we thought made the live versh great, then disappointment is the inevitable result. For example, I much prefer the versh of Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner performed on The Tube to the sparser recorded versh which eventually appeared.

With regards to live gigs, some of the live sets I've heard are *very* good, far better than the album versions in some cases, plus there's the usually interesting cover versions. Paris from last year is especially good (I recorded it myself but thesound quality in that place was fantastic, and the songs were all good)

'Magic Of A Kind Word' - rubbishy and probably written by departed Campbell

'Miraculous Technique' - pretty good. Maybe it will come out eventually, like 'Lord Anthony' and 'The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner' did.

'Pocketbook Angel' - good but I guess Murdoch sees it as part of his juvenilia now. Especially as it contains that 'ooh arr - it's full of silicon chips', which doesn't really sit well with his new iPod and DVD kitted technodad image. 'Hurley's Having Dreams' is better anyway.

'Shoot The Sexual Athlete' is the best of all.

Mark E H *wishes* he remembers.

video is here btw: http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=27910

'Stu-Pod Buys the Farm'

!!!

???

I always assume it's Chris Geddes behind all these experiments.

The last single had a cool DVD edition, basically exactly the same as the 4 track CD single with videos for two tracks (cunning to hide the vid at the end of the third track (that's actually two tracks in one, yeah?))

The last single reawakened my appr. for B&S after downloading a few storyteller tracks and going oh forget it.

So, If the single is as great as all that, I shall buy the album. At fopp. if.

and I said "That has to be "in the country", surely...

Also, I have never heard 'In The Country'. What is it really like?

I think I must still like Belle & Sebastian.

Baaa
ba ba ba baaaa
ba ba ba baaaa
ba ba ba baaaa

Tip of the hat, indeed. The sauce!

Pf it's the one that goes "you're going to find me, out in the country" and going on about it's where the weather's fine etc

Are you people saying that B&S are releasing a new song, as a new single?

The other day, on the Ross show, they talked about Ken Bruce. Did you hear it?

pinefox - I don't know it either.

Wow!

PF, you probably know it as an old DFS furniture superstore advert from the 1970s. Their shops were so big they had to locate them 'out in the country'.

Let me see if I can find the lyrics. It's a good song by Cliff standards, or indeed any standards. Maybe it's time for a Cliff revival:
------------------------------------
In The Country

When the world in which you're living
Gets a bit too much to bear
And you need someone to lean on
When you look there's no one there

You're gonna find me out in the country, yeah
You're gonna find me way out in the country
Where the air is good, and the day is fine
And a pretty girl has her hand in mine
And the silver stream is the poor man's wine
In the country, in the country

If you're walkin' in the city
And you're feelin' rather small
And the people on the sidewalk
Seem to form a solid wall

You're gonna find me, hey, out in the country
You're gonna find me, hey, out in the country
Where the air is good and the day is fine
And a pretty girl has her hand in mine
And the silver stream is the poor man's wine
In the country, in the country

Hurry, hurry, hurry
For time is slipping by, you don't need a ticket
It belongs to you and I, come on and join me, hey
Out in the country

Where the air is good, and the day is fine
And the pretty girl has her hand in mine
And the silver stream is the poor man's wine
In the country, in the country
------------------------------
It's a bit like The Housemartins. And a bit like Blur. The Farmers Boys did a cover version.

I still like Belle And Sebastian a lot, despite liking fewer and fewer of their recent songs. I think I quite like 'Your Cover's Blown'. Luckily it is nothing like the nme's "Indie Bohemian Rhapsody" remark.

i'm way more familiar with the farmers boys version, doubt i've heard cliff's more than twice.

amazon.de to the rescue

It's a fabulous lost track, save that it's not wholly lost.

I am listening to what may be ... THE BLACK SESSIONS, on tape? The track now is 'London Has Let Me Down, Again'. Something that we forget, maybe, is how many tracks - extras like this - that they have done, in all.

Like 'Nothing In The Silence'!

I didn't buy the new single, even with a B-Side I haven't heard, and that says a lot. 'Nothing In The Silence', on the other hand, is a beautiful, beautiful song and would have sat nicely on the new album in place of so many others I could mention.

Yeah, I still like B&S. It helps that I only started listening to them in 2001, and so missed all the cult stuff.

You aren't listening to the Black Sessions. Well, maybe you are, but you must be listening to some other stuff too.

So, er, fuck their fans, I thought it was meant to be a fucking rock concert.

I had not heard the song, or indeed heard of it before I got the Fans Only DVD.

I was singing/humming it for weeks afterwards.

This must count for something.

Surprisingly, this isn't such a bad thing.

There's the part where they sing something like 'la la la too fast/ la la la won't last' when the next line could very easily be 'Stop right now, thank you very much..'

I'm always a little disappointed that it isn't.

as ailsa said, those aren't Black Sessions but really early unreleased demos that, er, somehow got leaked into the public domain by unscrupulous bootleggers with probable links to terrorism...

I didn't realise Landslide had been done in the studio - only live I thought.

I've seen London has let me down et al tacked on to a few black sessions (which is Paris iirc) tapes.

Magic of a kind word is pretty crappy though

The version I was on about was live, and badly breathless.

What is THE BLACK SESSIONS, then?

I think I heard 'The Magic Of A Kind Word' yesterday. How does it go?

(from B&S website)

Stuart DJ'ing in Brighton Thu 19th Aug - 2004

Stuart Murdoch will be the special guest DJ this Saturday night - August 21st - at Holdup at the Arc Club in Brighton, on the seafront. He'll play a two-hour set filled with indie classics and 80's pop hits. Doors are at 10pm and it's £5 in on the door, curfew at 3am. Go along and shake your thing!

Go along! Report Back!

But some of them I like.

I have always said that that song was very very good. Are you saying that you now agree that I was right all along?

x-post, Oh, I always liked it - sorry bf!

JtN said that someone said that emo meant being angry about being sad. As you can see, I have not forgotten what he said, JtN, or whoever else it was.

I have heard it on the grapevine that Jordi was there.

(If there's one thing that really makes me fume, it is being sad!)

From another board:

Phew...what a show...the spruced up Sinsiter sounded amazing, and that had to be the best Judy i've seen them play.....and what great seats, 4 rows from the front, slap bang in the middle! they also played....in not this order:

slow grafitti
dog on wheels
the loneliness of the middle distance runner
electronic renaissance
i'm a cuckoo
the boy with the arab strap
the wrong girl
if you find yourself caught in love

(and a couple of others i forget)

as I said there: Envy, thy name is me!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29632983@N00/46732859/

So are the 2nd and last LPs. I played them, yesterday and today!

Tone support is for nasty bullies.
-- Tom (ebro...), March 26th, 2003.

What on earth is Tone Support, and why did I not ask this question 2.5 years ago?

It is a pity I woke up at 3 this morning.

I trust that they have reached the appropriate copyright agreements.

Were you planning to smash a Pimm's Bar, I would not advise doing so with Eno.

Which in itself would be a pity, but health and safety regulations exist for good reasons.

Perhaps one day I will think of one.

But if you were watching Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid for the first time, and the song was on the soundtrack, wouldn't you enjoy it?

Maybe not.

"It's nice when shuffle brings the odd song in."

But this could be a distinct possibility at some point in the future.

As for Dear Catastrophe Waitress, I found I liked it a lot more after I got into the habit of starting it on Track 3. (Occasionally Track 2, but this is more out of a misguided sense of completism than anything else.)

Also opposed to this smashing plan -- Eno takes Pimm's bars by strategy.

Nevermind.

I did not smash up the Pimms Bar, as it was probably the most pleasant spot on the site, apart from the mingling cacophonies.

The Strokes were so RUBBISH!

The Raconteurs were so RUBBISH!

I liked Super Furry Animals, but their big top was full up. I would like to go and see them properly one day.

The BBC Sessions album est arrive.

disc 1
1. State I Am In
2. Like Dylan In The Movies
3. Judy And The Dream Of Horses
4. Stars Of Track And Field
5. I Could Be Dreaming
6. Seymour Stein
7. Lazy Jane
8. Sleep The Clock Around
9. Slow Graffiti
10. Wrong Love
11. Shoot The Sexual Athlete
12. Magic Of A Kind Word
13. Nothing In The Silence
14. My Girl's Got Miraculous Technique
disc 2
1. Here Comes The Sun [live in Belfast]
2. There's Too Much Love [live in Belfast]
3. Magic Of A Kind Word [live in Belfast]
4. Me And The Major [live in Belfast]
5. Wandering Alone [live in Belfast]
6. Model [live in Belfast]
7. I'm Waiting For The Man [live in Belfast]
8. Boy With The Arab Strap [live in Belfast]
9. Wrong Girl [live in Belfast]
10. Dirty Dream 2 [live in Belfast]
11. Boys Are Back In Town [live in Belfast]
12. Legal Man [live in Belfast]

Often referred to as the 'greatest Scottish band ever', Belle & Sebastian have enjoyed critical success throughout their career. Currently on hiatus - with no plans to record any new material in the near future - the band present 'The BBC Sessions', which features tracks from the time of their formation in 1996 right up until 2001. The sessions also contain the group's last recordings with departed cellist Isobel Campbell.

ohhhh god yes more tracks with isobel pleeeeeeeease

I still love everything prior to that last album which I hate.

that's silly

Stopping at 01 means a distinct lack of them doing "The 12 Days of Christmas" on Peel in December 02. Lame.

Often referred to as the 'greatest Scottish band ever',

ok what

I like B&S aiight

Often referred to as what? By whom? Christ, these people's egos know no bounds.

Still: on hiatus, eh? Small mercies.

The 50 Best Scottish Bands Of All Time (as voted for by the public) are as follows:

Belle & Sebastian
Travis
Idlewild
Wet Wet Wet
Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Simple Minds
Teenage Fanclub
Bay City Rollers
Primal Scream
The Proclaimers
Texas
Mull historical society
Big country
Snow Patrol
Franz Ferdinand
Bis
Deacon Blue
Fish
Jesus and Mary Chain
Mogwai
Runrig
Trash Can Sinatras
Del Amitri
Orange Juice
Nazareth
Beta Band
Biffy Clyro
Altered Images
Aztec Camera
Eddi Reader
Goodbye Mr Mackenzie
Fire Engines
Delgados
Arab strap
Vaselines
Associates
The Pastels
Eurythmics
Aereogramme
Blue Nile
Boards of Canada
Rezillos
Incredible string band
Cocteau twins
Dogs Die in Hot Cars
Spare Snare
Average White Band
Lulu
Skids
Shamen

Aereogramme

lol 2004

I'd still consider voting Aereogramme now.

Where was that from, anyway?

The List/King Tuts' Wah Wah Club/Orange joint promotion, 2005.

I dunno, who are meant to "canonically" be the best Scottish band ever then? Because, Sensational Alex Harvey Band aside, I probably _would_ vote for B&S.

Er, dunno. Just not B&S, that's all ;)

Actually, Yatsura were great as well. I'll vote for them. They would have been better if they were from Camden though.

well it's clearly spare snare

I still love everything prior to that last album which I hate.

This is straight up madness, as The Life Pursuit was pretty much the only thing by B&S worth hearing since If You're Feeling Sinister.

The Life Pursuit was pretty much the only thing by B&S worth hearing since If You're Feeling Sinister.

you just aren't down with that orchestral pop, THATs the true madness. it's beautiful, imo

The blurb was from the HMV website, folks.

Often referred to as the 'greatest Scottish band ever',

You could remove the word "Scottish" from there and you'd get no argument from me.

wit & sebastian

it just strikes me as kind of ummmmmm that a band as derivative as Belle & Sebastian would be championed as the best specimen of anything

is there anyone ever who didnt like If You're Feeling Sinister?

yes kevin, there are many people in this world who don't like that album

Probably most people, if you could play it for every person in the world.

that's a good point

That list of the best Scottish band upthread is a peyle of shyte, fer fooks sake. No BMX Bandits, no cred.

surely most people would like the eps more than sinister

or the life pursuit

Actually, I've found the best B&S album to play to someone whose never heard them is Dear Catastrophe Waitress.

That's because Dear Catastrophe Waitress is easily their very best album. (ducks & runs..)

This is straight up madness, as The Life Pursuit was pretty much the only thing by B&S worth hearing since If You're Feeling Sinister.

― Johnny Fever,

you are deaf

^^^ werd

whenever i'm in a record shop in glasgow and they're playing some unspeakable shite over the sound system, it always turns out to be belle and sebastian

I saw a review this morning, seemed to suggest that the christmas session was an extra on CD2..

Oh, I see what they've done...

The Belfast show was a christmas gig.

Their b-sides and EP collections feature their best work. Hooking up with Trevor Horn was a bad idea in the long run, but where else would they have taken their sound? Oh well, still have the early music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJbIqiBNQX0

Such a great live band. The audience is getting older and surlier though. Someone threw spitballs at me for standing & dancing when they played at a seated concert hall in Toronto last year :(

the youtube that I posted is strangely amazing btw

I can't stop watching it

I dunno what to bump but hey: Tigermilk/If You’re Feeling Sinister tour!

Got tickets for both nights. They’re playing the same place where I got spitballed last time. At another Toronto B&S a guy shoulder slammed me for whistling after a song while daring to stand behind him. Weird energy!!

1) Just thinking about seeing a show in May 2026 gives me vertigo. 2) I haven't listened to or thought about B&S for some time, for not particular reason, but while I love these first two albums I just can't imagine seeing them two nights in a row.

thanks for bumping, i had no clue this was happening near me, bought tickets for sinister night. they’re one of the few bands i’ve liked since back then that i’ve never actually seen and would still be excited to.

Glad to help! I’ve always enjoyed their shows and iirc the lore correctly we are all technically children of the sinister mailing list right? ;)

2026 is a bummer and two night is a lot for our middle aged selves but fuck, they make me work five days each week, may as well force myself to have fun two of ‘em. I also recently saw 69 Love Songs over two nights so I know I’ve got it in me

yep I snagged some tickets for the Sinister night, I haven't really stayed with them since Fold Your Hands Child left me cold!

we got tickets to both SF shows. i don't pay much attention to their more recent output but i will always have a massive soft spot for the early albums, would love to see them play some of those early EP cuts too

I loved their 2023 album.

Wait, didn't they say they were going on hiatus just recently?

would love to see them play some of those early EP cuts too

― donna rouge, Friday, August 22, 2025 8:10 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes please, if i'm in the mood for b&s these days this is the stuff i go for

only US east coast dates for this 2026 tour are in Boston and NYC

you made me forget Miami...

is not on the east coast of our country...

Oops

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSzj3acGY07nCVbahocp08ie6LRdz6T4njNoA&s

Hope this tour comes to Philly, Baltimore, or DC. (I do note they claim dates will be added in their Instagram post.)

Called the Pier 17 box office because f those fees. Night one 50% sold and night 2 75% (and only $5 per ticket in fees at the box office). Going after work this evening.

My fave song of them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZZlcS50qzw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMCwXjpDGgQ

I love Sarah Martin

Called the Pier 17 box office because f those fees. Night one 50% sold and night 2 75% (and only $5 per ticket in fees at the box office). Going after work this evening.
I wish I had known this earlier. I had no idea you can call the box office and buy tickets that way.

*their* box office that is

On the original question: only a handful of tracks post-Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance have really stuck with me, so maybe I'm pretty much off the wagon now?!

Their setlists have been quite varied in recent years such that I'm pretty sure I'd still enjoy the "just surprise me" vibe a large-ish discography allows more than, um, dare I say a more 'nostalgia-oriented' show!? (But I don't pretend to know how to survive in the 21st century music business.)

Having said that, a handful of late-ish tracks like "We Were Beautiful" *do* actually rank amongst their best for me, if no one else lol.

Anyone know if Isobel & Stuart D. are involved?

That would be a dealmaker for me.

bird--to clarify, I called and asked about fees, but bought in person. unfortunately they weren't selling the 2 night passes (which they didn't mention on the phone) and only had 1 ticket left for the second night (!)(they said more might be released at some point with the whole 2 night pass deal). saved enough money that I'm fine waiting to find a second ticket that I want for night 2.

hate buying this far out, but telling myself I'll love being up there both nights!

Which is the best of the last few albums? I'm going to the Manchester 'Tigermilk' live show next year, but I think I tuned out after Girls in Peacetime. I haven't heard a note of the last two I don't think.

Both the last two are just average at best, imo. Late Developers is the better of the two but that’s not meant as a major recommendation.

Thanks btw, pgwp!

smdh at a thread called “does anyone still like belle and sebastian?” and it’s the from 2003 when they made their best album and were arguably at the apex of their career.

dear catastrophe waitress was their 6th lp, and the first one i didn't buy.

Snrub: this thread was started 6 months before Dear Catastrophe Waitress was released. Their last well-regarded album before it, The Boy With the Arab Strap, was coming on five years old. I think it was very fair to wonder if their best days were past them in early 2003. Unless your post was less a complaint and more a "huh, who'd have guessed"

you can be reasonably certain there were people on Indiepop-L who got off the B&S bus around If You're Feeling Sinister

I see. (x-post)

If I had posted when the thread was new (instead of a few months later) I feel I may have said something like "the contents of the Jonathan David and I'm Waking Up to Us singles plus that last Peel Session makes for a pretty interesting make-believe post-Fold Your Hands album, however."

Is Stuart David's book bad? Is Stuart Murdoch's book also bad?

Did Isobel write a book? I'd read it.

Sinister is an almost-perfect album, but DCW is my favourite

DCW is certainly the last album I loved. I didn't like the LIfe Pursuit at all so it was kind of a surprise.

TLP is strong, I'd say. Objectively as good as DCW if we're going song-for-song even though the tone is slightly less playful

I loved "Girls in peacetime.." but it did feel like time to get off the bus.

Welll....

Nobody reads anymore, neither my posts nor wayward books by indies.

"Come On Sister" from 2010's Write About Love is as strong as any song in their catalog.

I read the Stuart David book In the All Night Cafe and remember enjoying it. Stuart Murdoch's book I gave up on after a chapter or two. I don't remember why, the writing was bugging me

thank you erasingclouds <3

I'm only really here for the albums up to and including DCW, but the poll did lead me to 'Play for Today', which I now consider their best song.

nice, it's one of my favourites too, doesn't do itself any favours by taking like 5 minutes to get going though

My personal ranking - top tier albums I return to regularly; spotty but still some excellent stuff; and mediocre to bad

Sinister
Arab Strap
DCW
Tigermilk
Life Pursuit
—
Fold Your Hands
Write About Love
Girls in Peacetime
—
A Bit of Previous
Late Developers
Storytelling
Bagnold Summer

I love the slow unfolding of 'Play for Today' - makes the payoff even more powerful, imo.

Bagnold Summer = bad soundtrack for a terrible, terrible film.

oh it's not a Cure cover?

scttnnt, agree with that list 100%, and everything collected on Barman in the top rank too.

Oh, the movie...

I watched it with Alice, just before she started her music degree course. Kinda felt it was an introduction to what she'd be doing...

Anyway, I enjoyed it.

Lots of other people didn't...

Best Letterboxd Review of Stuart Murdoch's Debut Feature Film, "God Help the Girl".

still haven't brought myself around to watching that

EPs box set or Push Barman to Open Old Wounds would have be in my top four if it counts.

(along with tigermilk, DCW, and sinister of course)

xposts it's very amateur, some are very good (Olly Alexander) some are doing their best, shall we say?

You'll either find it charming, or, um, the opposite of charming...

Reminds me of that Boaby skit where Boab, Alan McGee and Stuart Murdoch do a Q&A at a college in the US...

Stuart begins a long answer on his film, "God Help the Girl".

BOAB (to Al): Here, whit's this aboot a film?
AL: He directed a film.
BOAB: Whit, that wee rat? Whit's it aboot?
AL: Glasgow, supposedly.
BOAB (suddenly interested): Glesga?

Boab decides to listen in to another question on the film.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Uh, I just wanna, um, bring up one of the, uh, criticisms levelled at your movie in certain quarters...
STUART (sitting forward in his seat): Mmm-hmm?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: ... uh-huh... the criticism was that there was a lack of diversity in your portrayal of Glaz-gow, specifically a lack of African-American characters and faces and, um.... how do you answer that, um, criticism?
STUART (squirming slightly): Well, I think that's a... (*clears throat*)... a good question... em... I mean, Glasgow isn't as ethnically diverse as most American cities...
BOAB: Bollocks.
MODERATOR: Pardon me?
BOAB: There's loats o' Asians in Glesga fur a stert.
MODERATOR: Really? I had no idea, do you have... like a Chinatown?
BOAB: Ye whit?
AL (to the moderator): He means South Asians.
BOAB: Aye, well a loat o’ them dae live in Pollokshields and Govanhill but ye dae get some north o' the river an' aw.
AL: Glasgow might not be that ethnically diverse, but it has got one significant group that seemed to be absent from your film, Stuart, if I may say so.
STUART: Oh, really? Who?
AL: Glaswegians.