Belle and Sebastian:Boy With Arab Strap:CoD

1) Strap 2) Sinister 3) Tigermilk

(haven't heard the latest) and that is exactly the order I would rank them. The highs on Arab Strap ("Ease Your Feet," the title track, "It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career") are the best things they're done in my opinion. It just seems the slightest bit more *lush* than the other records somehow, probably because it was my first exposure.

I can see that, but it still strikes me as whiny. Even if it had been another name, I might have liked it. But something about the way he sings "See-hee-moh-ore Stah-eye-ahn" bugs me.

And calling someone "Record Company Man" seemed a little too Rik from the Young Ones to me.

I can see that SS could be interpreted as a love song with the record company stuff as context, but like Nicole I find the lyrics to be a bit too whingy. The fact the music doesn't do anything for me to make up for this doesn't really help either.

And it's 'Seymour Stein' by B&S.

'She lives in a house, she's stupid as a mouse'. Thanks for that Suede. Profound.

Whoops! Sorry, wrong board. 40 licks with a wet Thom Yorke. Back to ILE with me!

And as far as Brett Anderson being sexy...no! He looks like some villain from Scooby Doo now, Neil was the cute one.

Instrumentally it's one of the most interesting things they've ever done - pulsebeat, electronic touches, bagpipes, and still within a template which is just about 'indie'. Matches the subdued, highly rhythmic singing perfectly, and it's probably the best thing B&S have ever done in terms of building each verse to a (quiet) climax.

And the lyrics are very good, though what's unique is the mood of the song - there are very few songs about personal redemption in pop I think, or rather personal redemption which is not explicitly tied to a love story or a political goal or something. STCA is about moving from a state of distress to a state of calm, calm also not being something rock 'handles' well. The second-person-singular lyrics are the icing on the cake here, explicitly making the song a comforting one. Comforting not in the cosy-familiarity sense but in a pastoral- care sense. At least that's how I've used it and it's a very special song to me for that reason.

Tom: the reason why I didn't go into details about "Sleep The Clock Around" is because I find B&S, for some reason, one of the hardest bands to write about when it gets down to individual songs. I think you're absolutely spot on about it, though.

Anyway, I love it. And I love 'Seymour Stein' as well. Most of TBWTAS meets with the Dirty Vicar's approval, particularly the title track, 'Sleep the clock around', 'Simple Things', 'Is It Wicked Not to Care', 'Chickfactor' and so on. The songs I can't remember the titles of are probably the ones I'm not too pushed about.

I can't say I enjoy either of Stevie's songs on that record, but certainly "Chickfactor" is thematically the same as "Seymour Stein" -- another name-dropping, across-the-ocean lament about his love. Gail O'Hara just doesn't happen to be as big a name to drop as Stein or Marr.

Though we were happy, as Lamacq played the new Camera Obscura single on the Evening Session, and then proceeded to announce their Strange Fruit show at the Spitz next week! That was pretty durned cool.

1. I really don't understand the acclaim for 'Sleep The Clock Around'. I had some affection for it cos of having that radio session on a tape, but at the end of the day I don't think it's a strong song at all. Yes, lyrically it's 'dense' - but, hey, weren't some earlier songs too ('State I Am In', 'Sinister', 'SB Jean')? And I didn't think that Tom E would especially think that density was a good thing in lyrics. (It CAN be - I agree - but in that song I don't think it comes of cos I can never really HEAR the lyrics.)

I appreciate that Tom E seems to have a 'personal' reason of some kind for liking the song so much - and such reasons are not swiftly to be gainsaid.

2. A fact about this LP is that it's an LP of two halves: a sort of standard half, then a more way-out half. No? That's what we were all saying when it came out. I just don't recall anyone saying so, exactly, on this thread yet.

3. I am very surprised that Nick D thinks 'chickfactor' is bad 60s pastiche. I have long thought it delicate and sophisticated. Musically and melodically, it seems to me relatively 'advanced'. By Jackson's standard, the lyric is quite good, too. But I should add that I don't really think Jackson's standard very high.

4. I think it was Scott P who mentioned that 'chickfactor' is a name- dropping song just like 'Seymour Stein' (whose 'Electronic' line really is, my god, as utterly terrible as everyone has said; oh, golly, yes). I think that Scott P is on a good point here - in that the two songs together show, I suppose, a lack of thematic imagination. (That would be a harsh way, though, of saying that Jackson happened to be - why not? - brooding on the same themes for a while.)

But there is a bigger issue here, actually. 'chickfactor' does *not* really drop any *names*, and 'SS' does: and I think that the fact that 'SS' does is a sign of how it's bad. Proper names in pop songs seem to me to be a risky device. I know that we all have a few songs named after proper names that we like (even if they're 'general' names - you know, 'Alison', 'Jeane', or whatever); but on the whole I think that names, esp. FULL names, are to be avoided in lyrics. Why? Again, they suggest a lack of imagination - a lack of art, or craft - a lack of the ability to turn the particular person into a more significant image.

But I can see that with my tastes, I am steering down a particularly dangerous alley here, in a beat-up Grace Kelly car, looking like a friend of Truman Capote, riding my luck with the traffic police.

Thinking about it, I don't know which Beach Boys record I'm actually talking about here (perhaps none) so can we take it as a mythical Beach Boys record in which a Smile outtake towered above inferior new material, please? You know what I mean. "LOAMDR" is the best song on the new LP by a street. And it was written back in the days when B&S put out good records.

But actually, more than anything, they really remind me of Modesty Blaise.

Wow, B&S don't even sound like they are aping the original anymore, they sound like they modern Elephant6 copyists... wow, that's a shame.

I'm not sure I quite agree with you about 'Loneliness' - not cos I don't like the song, but cos (as Honey and others have said), it doesn't seem as dynamic a *version* as it could have been. In particular, Peter Miller is right that the guitar solo is laid up on a couch drinking Lem-sips. I still think that you must be right that the song is better than the other songs, though.

Let me add another name to the influence / resemblance -mix, re. the A-side: Elvis Costello!

First side is their peak

plus B1,B2

If You're Feeling Sinister was their peak, I think.

Some quality analysis in this thread.

I think Dear Catastrophe Waitress is the one that has held up the best.

This record is such a let down after the first 2 plus the EPs. If you think this is their peak... I... don't know what to say really.

"Dirty Dream #2" & "Simple Things" are great though.

say "brimstead had the best taste in music"

has

feel like this album is the one for folks who like felt and smiths and stuff but think sinister is not all that

and trip hop

alas, poor brimstead had the best taste in music... twas a pity.