Tag Archives: Belle and Sebastian

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Song of the Day #3,866: ‘Simple Things’ – Belle & Sebastian

‘Simple Things’ is the penultimate track on Belle & Sebastian’s 1998 album The Boy With the Arab Strap.

I was going to write that I consider this one of their top three albums but when I checked their discography to be sure, I realized I might have to amend that to one of their top five. Maybe six. And they’ve released only nine full-length albums. The moral being that God damn, Belle & Sebastian are a great band and I should dive back into their catalog soon instead of trying to understand what critics liked about the Cardi B album.

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Song of the Day #3,831: ‘It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career’ – Belle & Sebastian

The lead-off track of Belle & Sebastian’s 1998 album The Boy With the Arab Strap, ‘It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career’ is a classic example of the band’s early style. I’ll stack the music on B&S’s first three albums against pretty much anything ever.

Nobody does acoustic melancholy like the Scottish septet. They later expanded their sound, branching into pop and even dance music quite successfully, but for me this will always be the quintessential Belle & Sebastian sound.

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Song of the Day #3,614: ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’ – Belle and Sebastian

Today’s Random iTunes Selection comes at a good time.

I’ve been a bit down on Belle and Sebastian lately due to the uncharacteristic mediocrity of their most recent release. The band’s first new material since 2015’s Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance is a collection of EPs that combine to form a 15-track album titled How to Solve Our Human Problems. And for my money, it’s the weakest thing they’ve ever recorded.

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Song of the Day #3,319: ‘Big John Shaft’ – Belle & Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian’s 2002 album Storytelling is the soundtrack to the Todd Solondz film of the same name. However, the relationship between the band and Solondz was so poor that only about five minutes of their music made it into the film’s final cut.

As a musical release, this is by far the band’s weakest effort. It contains only two or three actual songs interspersed with brief instrumentals and snippets of dialogue. I believe it was released mostly as a contractual obligation, as this was Belle & Sebastian’s final album on the Jeepster label. Continue reading →

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Song of the Day #3,250: ‘Perfect Couples’ – Belle & Sebastian

I recently registered my vote for Talking Heads over Stevie Wonder in the Montauk Madness competition. Today’s random SOTD is one of the reasons why.

I hear the influence of Talking Heads all over the music I like. I’d never expect the delicate Scottish band Belle & Sebastian to lay down a groove like this, but here they are, channeling David Byrne’s ground-breaking work in a move that makes me appreciate both bands even more.

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