#the boy with the Arab strap (1996)

[tomcat-radio]

Some Belle and Sebastian sketches because I love their album covers and wanted some value practice. Anyway I’m so normal about this band it’s insane.

[archivist-crow]

Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998)

Twenty-six years ago today, on September 7, 1998, The Boy with the Arab Strap, the third studio album by Belle & Sebastian, was released. After their second album came out in 1996, Scottish indie outfit Belle & Sebastian opted to release three EP’s the following year, delaying the release of their third album. However, the EPs all successively climbed the higher on the charts, introducing the band to US college radio audiences, and setting the stage for the new album. Released to acclaim in 1998, the album peaked at number 12 in the UK and was the band’s first real presence in the US.

[musicalsiphonophore]

i think what makes early belle and sebastian hit so hard is the apathetic feeling in the songs.

Their songs are incredibly light in terms of the sounds themselves, no heaviness or sadness sits in the instrumentation.

In the early songs especially, the lyrics express the most mundane and mid experiences of life.

These are from the state I am in (1996), le pastie de la bourgeoisie (1997), like dylan in the movies (1996), and ease your feet off in the sea (1998).

It is very everyday subject matter. Most bands are not writing songs about sandwiches and working at M&S.

Also, the vocals generally sound extremely slow and careless. You can hear this in songs like Stars of Track and Field (1996) and Expectations (1996).

These two things combined give a feeling of real boredom; life is average and it’s kind of shit and very uninteresting, and the songs are just a bit done with it, and they aren’t going to embellish it that much, it is what it is.

A misery is written into some of these songs as well, especially on Boy With The Arab Strap.

From sleep the clock around (1998) (I’m absolutely insane about this lyric), is it wicked not to care? (1998), the fox in the snow (1996), and belle and sebastian (1997).

Oh, it’s devastating. That is the thing about this apathetic feeling that the songs evoke: on its own, it isn’t really a sad feeling, it is just empty. But when you zoom out, see how much is lost to not caring, it is absolutely heartbreaking. Early B&S summarises this so well: individually a lot of their music sounds pretty cheery, well maybe not CHEERY as such but certainly not sad, but if you think about it for a short moment, it is so upsetting.

For some context: Stuart Murdoch has chronic fatigue syndrome. He was out of school and work for a while in the late 80s / early 90s and in that time he would just watch people and come up with this stories about them. - Hence why so many of their early songs are about third or second person characters. This also explains why the exhausted feeling permeates the music.

if you want some songs that show this well, I advise you to just listen through boy with the arab strap and then listen to the state i am in, but for specific songs, see:

sleep the clock around (personal fave)

is it wicked not to care

the state i am in

belle and sebastian

get me away from here i’m dying

it could have been a brilliant career

a summer wasting, though this is more cheerful, but it is a different side of the same feeling

expectations

stars of track and field

if you’re feeling sinister

dog on wheels

lazy line painter jane

the fox in the snow

le pastie de la bourgeoisie

By the time dear catastrophe waitress came out, this feeling was no longer really present in their songs. Piazza new york catcher, for example, keeps this bright, weightless sound quality, but the deep seated unhappiness is mostly gone. (I can’t really speak for fold your hands child you walk like a peasant or storytelling, because I really don’t know those albums well, so idk when exactly that switch took place.)

It is good to see a musician actually become happier over time, because so many musicians seem to have the Amy Winehouse type situation where they become even more poorly adjusted. But it does mean the songs lose some of the emotional richness… but I am happy for Stuart Murdoch.

[studioalbums]

365. Belle and Sebastian

Tigermilk (1996)

If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996)

The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998)

Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000)

Storytelling (2002)

Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

The Life Pursuit (2006)

Write About Love (2010)

Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (2015)

Days of the Bagnold Summer (2019)

A Bit of Previous (2022)

Late Developers (2023)

[the-infinite-jukebox]

Belle and Sebastian - Late Developers (Quick Album Review)

If there is one band out there attempting to ruin their legacy with relentless mediocrity, it is Belle and Sebastian. Known for indie pop masterclasses like 1996's If You're Feeling Sinister and 1998's The Boy With the Arab Strap, the lackadaisical restraint of Belle and Sebastian hasn't had a real chance to make a statement of quality since 2010's Write About Love even though I admittedly enjoyed some moments from 2021's A Bit of Previous. Late Developers, the band's latest studio album, is more of the soulless and overproduced pop rock that has plagued their discography for a little over a decade at this point. The vocal work here is rough from time to time, particularly that of Stuart Murdoch, which directly opposes the squeaky clean instrumentals of Late Developers. There are often times where this record feels like it wants to explore other sounds beyond the basic indie pop rock presented here. There are extremely minor jazzy moments here or there, as well as some fairly pleasant acoustic moments. However, Belle and Sebastian instead choose to replicate more of the sound that has taken them from indie pop icons to a painfully uninteresting shell of their old selves. The sparkle of the only highlight here, "Will I Tell You a Secret," hints at the tender greatness of Belle and Sebastian before this temporary high crashlands into a series of unimpressive and frustratingly unremarkable tracks. Behind a wall of peppy instrumentals and dully colored backdrops is an album built on insincerity. Every band or artist is destined to evolve, but records like Late Developers demonstrate that Belle and Sebastian grew in the wrong direction.

Final Rating: 2/5 (Bad)

[rocksbackpages]

New for RBP subscribers this week

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— Suede's Brett Anderson (1995)

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PLUS pieces on...

• The Shadows (1965) • Lee Dorsey (1966) • Cream @ Saville (1967) • Beatles/Hendrix news (1968) • Incredible String Band (1969) • Sabbath/Yes live (1970) • Brinsley Schwarz (1971) • Michael Jackson (1972) • Peters & Lee (1973) • Mickey "Guitar" Baker (1974) • Harry Chapin (1975) • Van Dyke Parks' Clang (1976) • George Benson (1977) • Adverts et al. live (1978) • Siouxsie & Banshees (1979) • Robert Fripp (1980) • Haircut 100 (1981) • Chic @ Palladium (1982) • The Minutemen (1983) • Everything But the Girl (1984) • Bobby Womack (1985) • Dwight Yoakam (1986) • Beastie Boys (1987) • Sade's Stronger (1988) • David Sylvian (1989) • Shack live in Leeds (1990) • Joni Mitchell (1991) • Steve Forbert's American (1992) • Ween (1993) • Dan Penn et al. live (1994) • Moby's Animal Rights (1996) • Robbie Williams (1997) • Run DMC live (1998) • Arab Strap (1999) • Oasis' Shoulder (2000) • Linton Kwesi-Johnson (2001) • Joe Strummer (2003) • Eric Dolphy's Lunch (2004) • Sigur Ros' Takk (2005) • Johnny Jenkins R.I.P. (2006) • Young Gods (2007) • Stan Tracey (2008) • Hyperdub Records (2009) • Jackson Browne (2010) • Can's Tago Mago (2011) • The Summer of Love (2012) • NOFX (2013) • Kim Gordon (2014) • Jessie J @ Brixton (2015) • Run the Jewels 3 (2017) • Spencer P Jones (2018) • Leonard Cohen's muses (2019) • Genesis (2020)

[beansonbread2]

BEANSONBREAD AWARDS 2021 - BEST ALBUM

AWARD NO.2 - BEST ALBUM OF 2021

PAST WINNERS

2020 > The Flaming Lips - ‘American Head’ (see full list HERE)

2019 > Self Esteem - ‘Compliments Please’ (see full list HERE)

2018 > Kero Kero Bonito - ‘Time ‘n’ Place’ (see full list HERE)

2017 > Richard Dawson - ‘Peasant’ (see full list HERE)

2016 > Blood Orange - ‘Freetown Sound’ (see full list HERE)

2015 > Holly Herndon - ‘Platform’ (see full list HERE)

2014 > FKA Twigs - ‘LP1′ (see full list HERE)

2013 > These New Puritans - ‘Field Of Reeds’ (see full list HERE)

2012 > Django Django - ‘Django Django’ (see full list HERE)

2011 > Shabazz Palaces - ‘Black Up’ (see full list HERE)

2010 > These New Puritans - ‘Hidden’ (see full list HERE)

2009 > Animal Collective - ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ (see full list HERE)

2008 > Wild Beasts - ‘Limbo, Panto’ (see full list HERE)

2007 > Animal Collective - ‘Strawberry Jam’ (see full list HERE)

2006 > Safetyword - ‘Man’s Name Is Legion’ (see full list HERE)

2005 > Animal Collective - ‘Feels’ (see full list HERE)

2004 > Devendra Banhart - ‘Rejoicing In The Hands’ / ‘Nino Rojo’

2003 > Dizzee Rascal - ‘Boy In Da Corner’

2002 > The Streets - ‘Original Pirate Material’

2001 > The Beta Band - ‘Hot Shots II’

2000 > Outkast - ‘Stankonia’

1999 > The Beta Band - ‘The Beta Band’

1998 > The Beta Band - ‘The Three EPs’

1997 > Radiohead - ‘OK Computer’

1996 > Beck - ‘Odelay’

—

THE RULES - No Re-issues, Live Albums, Compilations, or EPs.

—

SPECIAL MENTIONS for these collections and things that aren’t really allowed on the main lists.

Illegal Data Compilation 2

Curl Compilation 2

Avon Terror Corps ‘Wish You Were Avon’ & ‘Resist To Exist’

Bulbils (Richard Dawson & Sally Pilkington)

Eyeballs (Richard Dawson) 

Various Artists ‘Songs WI without Authors Vol.1’

Office Hours ‘The Very Best Of Office Hours Vol.1’

DJ Douggpound & Vic Berger IV ‘Drop Concert’

—

***SPOTIFY PLAYLIST FEATURES TRACKS FROM THE TOP ALBUMS (coming later) ***

—

WORTH A MENTION (in no order) - A bunch of albums i enjoyed but didn’t quite make the final lists and others i just didn’t hear enough to be considered properly.  A list for future me to revisit.

Skee Mask / Priya Ragu / Recovery Girl / NTsKi / Space Afrika / Vanishing Twin / Post Yoga / Liars / Lingua Ignota / Kanye West / Caro / Joy Orbison / Drug Store Romeos / Amine / Young Thug / Claire Rousay / The Death Of Pop / GFOTY / Nas / For Those I Love / Lorde / Kyary Pamyu Pamyu / Clementine March / Arlo Parks / Brockhampton / Ashnikko / Bicep / R.A.P. Ferreira / Pearl Charles / Anna B Savage / The War On Drugs / Turnstile / Palberta / Cobalt Chapel / Buzzy Lee / Pooh Shiesty / St. Vincent / Remi Wolf / Sad Night Dynamite / Nick Cave & Warren Ellis / The Weather Station / Julien Baker / Claud / The Staves / Tindersticks / Sun June / Ryley Walker & Kikagaku Moyo / Steady Holiday / Oscar Scheller / Arab Strap / LUMP / Porter Robinson / Godspeed You! Black Emperor / Jon Hopkins / Teenage Fanclub / Ryley Walker / Du Blonde / Mach-Hommy / Sons Of Kemet / Mdou Moctar / Iosonouncane / Olivia Rodrigo / Doja Cat / Lucy Dacus / Backxwash / Faye Webster / Rostam / Andrew Hung / Black Dresses / Dave / Darkstar / Snapped Ankles / Anika / Ishmael Ensemble / EP/64 / Sulka / ThisisDA / Callum Easter / A.R. Pinewood / Annie Gardiner / Bad Tracking / Kacey Musgraves / Tommy Genesis / HTRK / RP Boo / James Blake / Joy Crookes / Wiki / Marissa Nadler / Hand Habits / W. H. Lung / My Morning Jacket / Cindy / Snail Mail / Idles / Nation Of Language / Pip Blom / Still Corners / Sun June / SLONK / Julia Bardo / Wasuremono / Young Thug, Young Stoner Life & Gunna / Sonic Boom / Tentenko / AJ Tracey / Holiday Ghosts / Parannoul / Desire Marea / Charles / Griffith James / Parasol / Dreeks / Devonte Hynes / Devendra Banhart / O Future / Francois & The Atlas Mountains / Hannah Peel / Andy Stott / Connan Mockasin / Banoffee / Lomond Campbell / Miho Hatori / Albertine Sarges / Drakeo The Ruler / JME, Frisco & Shorty / Clint  Mansell / Dawn Richard / Cake Pop / MF Tomlinson / Colin Stetson / BABii / Censor OST / Hiatus Kaiyote / MIKE / Squirrel Flower / Daniel Avery / Isaiah Rashad / Laura Mvula / Kai Whiston / The Goon Sax / Aaron Dilloway & Lucrecia Dalt / Poppy / Nao / Aaron Cartier / Megan Thee Stallion / Headie One / Badbadnotgood / Lil Ugly Mane / Jonny Greenwood / Dan Deacon / Modern Nature / Pearl & The Oysters / Lunar Vacation / Minotaur Shock / Unknown Me / Benny Revival / Erika De Casier / Hesitation

-

2021 RUNNERS UP (in no order)

Pauline Anna Strom ‘Angel Tears In Sunlight’

Flying Lotus ‘Yasuke’

Tony Allen ‘There Is No End’

MXLX ‘Nebula Rasa’

Klein ‘Harmattan’

Smerz 'Believer’

Koreless ‘Agor’

Madlib ‘Sound Ancestors’

Langkamer ‘West Country’

Robin Allender ‘Tape Dreams IV’

Watery Grave ‘Vol 1’

Pys Melyn ‘Bywyd Llonydd’

Grandaddy ‘The Sophtware Slump...On A Wooden Piano’

Valerie June ‘The Moon And The Stars’

Namasenda ‘Unlimited Ammo’

Sleaford Mods ‘Spare Ribs’

Pom Poko ‘Cheater’

Memotone ‘Shiro’

Salamanda ‘Sphere’

Jazmine Sullivan ‘Heaux Tales’

Deerhoof ‘Actually, You Can’

Animal Collective ‘Crestone’ OST

Alexis Taylor ‘Silence’

Leon Vynehall ‘Rare, Forever’

Vince Staples ‘Vince Staples’

Parquet Courts ‘Sympathy For Life’

Tommy Perman & Friends ‘Positive Interactions’

Jana Rush ‘Painful Enlightenment’

Lana Del Rey ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’

Matthew E. White ‘K Bay’

Yu Su ‘Yellow River Blue’

Zack Fox ‘Shut The Fuck Up Talking To Me’

The Besnard Lakes ‘The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm Warnings’

James Yorkston And The Second Hand Orchestra ‘The Wide, Wide River’

Divide And Dissolve ‘Gas Lit’

Altun Gun ‘Yol’ & ‘Alem’

Black Dice ‘Mod Prog Sic’

Virginia Wing ‘Private LIFE’

Billie Eilish ‘Happier Than Ever’

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah ‘New Fragility’

Nana Yamato ‘Before Sunrise’

Mush ‘Lines Redacted’

Shmu ‘The Universe Is Inside My Body’

The Orielles ‘La Vita Olistica’

Genesis Owusu  ‘Smiling With No Teeth’

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra ‘Promises’

Blanck Mass ‘In Ferneaux’

Bar Italia ‘Bedhead’

Underscores ‘Fishmonger’

Irreversible Entanglements ‘Open The Gates’

Jane Weaver ‘Flock’

Iglooghost ‘Lei Line Eon’

Arooj Aftab ‘Vulture Prince’

Speillling ‘The Turning Wheel’

Moor Mother ‘Black Encyclopedia Of The Air’

Park Hye Jin ‘Before i Die’

Gaspard Auge ‘Escapades’

Shmu ‘The Universe Is Inside My Body’

---__--___ (Seth Graham & others) ‘The Heart Pumps Kool-Aid’

Herbert Powell ‘Here In My Scheme, Here It Ends’

Perfect Young Lady ‘PYL DEMO AND…’

Baby Keem ‘The Melodic Blue’

Sega Bodega ‘Romeo’

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine ‘A Beginner’s Mind’

Lice ‘Wasteland: What Ails Our People Is Clear’

Django Django ‘Glowing In The Dark’

Lambchop ‘Showtunes’

Won’t (Matt Loveridge) ‘WON’T’

Clairo ‘Sling’

Ghetts ‘Conflict Of Interest’

Fimber Bravo ‘Lunar Tredd’

Xiu Xiu ‘Oh No’

Kings Of Convenience ‘Peace Or Love’

James Ferraro ‘Terminus’

Equiknoxx ‘Basic Tools Mixtape’

SAULT ‘Nine’

-

THE TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2021

50. Foodman ‘Yasuragi Land’

49. Mildred Maude ‘Sleepover’

48. Dick Dent ‘Do You Mind If I Talk?’

47. Lorraine James ‘Reflection’ 

46. John Glacier ‘SHILOH: Lost For Words’

45. Cassandra Jenkins ‘An Overview On Phenomenal Nature’

44. Penelope Isles ‘Which Way To Happy’

43. Saint Etienne ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’

42. Spindle Ensemble ‘Inkling’

41. The Bug ‘Fire’

40. Lil Nas X ‘MONTERO’

39. Injury Reserve ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’

38. Danny L Harle ‘HARLECORE’

37. Japanese Breakfast ‘Jubilee’

36. Robbie & Mona ‘EW’

35. Mumble Tide ‘Everything Ugly’

34. PinkPantheress ‘To Hell With It’

33. Landslide Purist ‘True Correction For A Bright Future’

32. Kinlaw & Franco Franco ‘Mega Dopo Mega’

31. Spirit Of The Beehive ‘Entertainment, Death’

30. Mica Levi ‘Blue Alibi’

29. L’Rain ‘Fatigue’

28. Tyler, The Creator ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’

27. Grouper ‘Shade’

26. Ed Dowie ‘The Obvious I’

25. Aya ‘Im Hole’

24. Arca ‘Kick ii’ / ‘Kick iii’ / ‘Kick iiii’ / ‘Kick iiiii’

23. Giant Claw ‘Mirror Guide’

22. Jpegmafia ‘LP!’

21. Richard Dawson & Circle ‘Henki’

20. CHAI ‘WINK’

19. Gruff Rhys ‘Seeking New Gods’

18. Field Music ‘Flat White Moon’

17. Bonnie Prince Billy & Matt Sweeney ‘Superwolves’

16. Mogwai ‘As The Love Continues’

15. Clinic ‘Fantasy Island’

14. Serpentwithfeet ‘Deacon’

13. Zoee ‘Flaw Flower’

12. Magdalena Bay ‘Mercurial World’

11. Tirzah ‘Colourgrade’

10. Dean Blunt ‘Black Metal 2’

9. Mica Levi ‘Zola’ OST

8. Black Midi ‘Cavalcade’

7. William Doyle ‘Great Spans Of Muddy Time’

6. Black Country, New Road ‘For The First Time’

5. Squid ‘Bright Green Field’

4. Dry Cleaning ‘New Long Leg’

3. Little Simz ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’

2. Low ‘Hey What’

1. Self Esteem ‘Prioritise Pleasure’

[mygenerationtriomf]

MG vol42 Chill mix

Easy listening van 60s tm 2020

https://www.mixcloud.com/Elsalvo/my-generation-vol42-chill-mix/

1) Johnny Cash   In my life (2002)                                           

2) The Beatles   You’ve got to hide your love away (1965)           

3) The Smiths    Please Please Please let me get.. (1984)

4) Elliott Smith   Sweet Adeline (1998)           

5) Gordon Lightfoot      Sundown (1975)

6) John Martyn   May you never (1971)

7) The Rolling Stones    Country Honk (1969)           

8) Neil Young     Comes a time (1978)

9) Belle and Sebastian   The boy with the Arab strap (1998)

10) PJ Harvey    Working for the man (1995)

11) Tears for Fears     Mad World (1982)   

12) Radiohead     Separator (2011)

13) Mark Lanegan    This game of love (2020)           

14)The Cars    Drive  (1984)

15) The Korgis   Everybody got to learn sometime (1980)

16) Fleet Foxes   Sun it rises (2008)

17) Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young    Our house (1970)                       

18) Nirvana    Something in the way (1991)

19) George Michael     Jesus to a child (1996)

20) Leonard Cohen   You want it darker (2016)

21) David Bowie     Lazarus (2015)

[popofventi]

November Song 6: "The Turning of Our Bones" by Arab Strap

"The Turning of Our Bones" Lyrics by Arab Strap

I don't give a fuck about the past Our glory days gone by All I care about right now Is that wee mole inside your thigh And my confidence might crumble But my Brio is unbroken Let me loosen all your knots Let our bodies be awoken It's been another seven years It's showing 'round the eyes Another seven years Entombed in lethargy and lies But let's dig out our old clothes And prepare for celebration I am the son of sleep All I need's an invitation

The heart began to putrefy And then the body bloated As our hair and teeth fell out We did our best to be devoted But let's squeeze the maggots from our flesh Like tiny poison pustules Abandon all decorum Boil us down to our essentials We're all just carbon, water Starlight, oxygen and dreams And the sun, the moon, the earth The neighbors long to hear our screams So if Bacchus is a friend to Love Then take this cup of kindness Just one sip, one chug One kiss can cure us of our blindness Hear my wanton whispers My loud, intemperate plea We've been down among the dead men Now you're coming up with me

Dig us up and hold us high Raise our carcass to the sky Wrap us up in sequin skin And we can dance again in sin Just take my hand and be brave We'll say goodbye to this grave Tonight we salsa, we rave We are upcycled and saved We've got the hay so let's roll Surrender all self control Quick now before the bell tolls Let's sing the sighs from our souls

In the long grass underneath the sun, I saw you In Tesco with your buttons undone, I saw you Hand in hand as we do the school run, I saw you In a mask with a secret someone, I saw you

Let's not be bashful Don't be oblique The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak The second life is calling Feel its pull, feel its tow So let's live now before we're back below

-XXX-

Arab Strap Bio

Arab Strap's music featured frank, unflinching narratives about sex and drugs spoken/sung in a thick Scottish brogue, backed by drum machines, electronic loops, and sparse guitar melodies. Initially a duo, their sound became richer and more ambitious as they toured and collaborated with additional musicians. A major part of the Glasgow music scene which spawned Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai, they were among Scotland's most acclaimed bands of the 1990s and 2000s.

Arab Strap were formed in mid-1995 by vocalist Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton, longtime friends who after years of exchanging cassettes of their respective bands decided to finally begin collaborating together. Upon signing to the hip Chemikal Underground label, they issued their debut single, the stark and downcast "The First Big Weekend"; the song was a major critical hit, with Britain's Radio One declaring it the best record of the decade. In late 1996, Arab Strap issued their full-length debut, The Week Never Starts Round Here, followed a year later by the EP The Girls of Summer. In 1998, after scoring a hit with their remix of David Holmes' "Don't Die Just Yet," Arab Strap issued their second LP, Philophobia (and signed to Matador in the United States). The album featured several guest musicians, including Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian, who would name their subsequent album The Boy with the Arab Strap in tribute to the duo. The two bands were friends, but Arab Strap didn't appreciate B&S using their name, so it caused somewhat of a rift between the two.

In 1999, Arab Strap signed to Go! Beat and released a limited live album called Mad for Sadness, which was followed by their third studio album, Elephant Shoe. By 2000, they were back on Chemikal Underground, who issued The Red Thread in 2001. In 2002, Moffat released Hypnogogia, the debut solo album by his electronic project Lucky Pierre (later shorted to L. Pierre), and Middleton made his solo debut with 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine. As a duo, they released full-length Monday at the Hug and Pint and limited live album The Cunted Circus in 2003, followed by 2005's The Last Romance, which was more upbeat and optimistic than most of their prior releases. The band felt it had "run its course" by fall 2006, as an official announcement was made of its disbandment. Arab Strap issued the farewell quasi-greatest-hits compilation Ten Years of Tears that November and embarked on a final U.K. tour before calling it a day. Both musicians continued releasing solo material, with Moffat alternating between electronic releases as L. Pierre and folk albums under his own name.

In 2010, Chemikal Underground put together Scenes of a Sexual Nature, a lavish box set containing five pieces of vinyl, three CDs, a cassette, a certificate, and a poster. The following year, the duo recorded a cover of Slow Club's "Two Cousins" under the name Two Cousins 1999. Soon after, they reunited for a one-off performance as Arab Strap, in celebration of Glasgow venue Nice N Sleazy's 20th anniversary. The duo launched a new website in 2016, and confirmed that they were reuniting for a series of 20th anniversary shows that year. They also released "The First Big Weekend of 2016," a rework of their debut single by Scottish producer Miaoux Miaoux. A self-titled double CD/LP compilation appeared on Chemikal Underground in time for the reunion concerts.

Ventipop November 2020 Playlist

[rockdadca]

Review: Belle & Sebastian at the Danforth Music Hall

Band: Belle & Sebastian Venue: The Danforth Music Hall Date: July 17, 2019

Belle & Sebastian are hands down the crème de la crème of indie-pop, and their reputation is only strengthened by their live performances.

Few bands manage to write more than two good albums before falling into obscurity, yet, Belle and Sebastian have a solid track record, with nine highly-acclaimed studio albums. The size of the band, of course, helps, as they are comprised of six gifted graduates of Glasgow's experimental social program for unemployed musicians. All of them contributing to some capacity. Yet, you can't dismiss the genius of the band's lead songwriter, Stuart Murdoch. His lyrics tell intricate fantasies of love, lust and loss — backed up by incredibly elaborate musical arrangements.

Two years after their last stop in Toronto, the band returned to delight an audience of almost 1500 at the Danforth Music Hall. The venue choice was an interesting one. In 2017, they performed at the Sony Centre (sold out immediately) — one of Toronto's prime venues for live audiophiles. With a sizeable floor, the Danforth offers a more laid back setting that welcomes some good ol' Canadian dancing.

The band kicked off their two-hour set with "Expectations" from their 1996 debut album. The song was resurrected in 2007 by making a mainstream appearance on the movie Juno and has proven to be a fan favourite. It was quickly followed by a few other songs like the brand new "Sister Buddha" and the chamber pop classic "Another Sunny Day."

Murdoch —whose on-stage conversations are only rivalled by those of Dave Grohl—stopped to greet the audience and joke about the dubious nature of the songs co-written by guitarist Bobby "Belfast" Kildea.

In comparison with their last show in Toronto, last night's setlist felt eclectic. The upside of their choice in songs is that they played music from every album (except Storytelling). On the other hand, their 2017 show was a cohesive crescendo that began with delicate classics and culminated as a full-on dance party. But both expectations and comparisons can ruin one's experience — and I didn't let it ruin mine.

As always, the band served the "Elton John Special" and invited a couple of dozen selfie-hungry hipsters on stage to dance while playing "The Boy With the Arab Strap" and "You're Just a Baby." Interestingly, cameras were almost nowhere to be seen until these two songs.

One moment that will most likely go down in history was their spontaneous and highly-unexpected cover of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades." You may be wondering how the heck this came about. Murdoch asked the audience if they had any requests for their encore. Some obnoxious guy asked for "Ace of Spades," and the band (minus Murdoch) obliged.

"Wow Stevie, you never struck me as a Motorhead fan," Murdoch joked.

"Sleep the Clock Around" was the second request from the audience. This time a little more serious, and a song the entire band is well-acquainted with.

"Piazza, New York Catcher" was meant to be the closing song. Murdoch looked at the clock and joked "we would keep on playing for four more hours like Bruce Springsteen, but I feel that wouldn't be nice." With three minutes left before the dreaded curfew, Belle & Sebastian decided to end the show on an ironic note with "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying."

Belle & Sebastian are known to put on a good show, and last night was no exception. 

Setlist

Expectations

Sister Buddha

We Were Beautiful

Another Sunny Day

Step Into My Office, Baby

Poor Boy

The Wrong Girl

The Boy Done Wrong Again

Nice Day for a Sulk

Family Tree

The Book of You

Mayfly

Stay Loose

The Boy With the Arab Strap

You're Just a Baby

I Want the World to Stop ---

Ace of Spades (Motorhead Cover)

Sleep the Clock Around 

Piazza, New York Catcher

Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying

Listen to the setlist here.

[bellsofrhymney]

Belle and Sebastian, Weezer and Blur!

belle and sebastianhow long i’ve been listening to them: 6 years :~)favourite song: i could be dreamingleast favourite song: the one with norah jones…favourite album: push barman and boy with the arab strapfirst song i heard: piazza new york catcherhave i ever seen them live: yes, 2 times last year and i’m going to see them again in september :-)any merch i possess: 5 t-shirts, all of the albums and some of the eps on cd, the fans only dvd, a poster and some postcards and stickers and suchfavourite recorded concert: bowlie weekender 1999favourite music video: dirty dream number 2favourite member: stu and stevie

blurhow long i’ve been listening to them: 3 yearsfavourite song: it’s beachcoma at the momentleast favourite song: alex’s songfavourite album: 13first song i heard: song 2have i ever seen them live: no..any merch i possess: a t-shirt, some of the albums on cd and the starshaped dvdfavourite recorded concert: can’t think of one but i really love this performance https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gcDfUSsAHDsfavourite music video: country housefavourite member: Graham Leslie Coxon

weezer - i gotta say upfront that i haven’t dared to listen to anything post green album yethow long i’ve been listening to them: just for 5 monthsfavourite song: surf wax americaleast favourite song: beverly hills is the worst one i’ve heard so farfavourite album: the blue albumfirst song i heard: island in the sunhave i ever seen them live: i’m going to see them in october !any merch i possess: /favourite recorded concert: bizarre festival 1996favourite music video: the sweater songfavourite member: matt!!!!!!!!! and from the current line-up brian

[thebowerypresents]

Belle & Sebastian Headline Brooklyn Steel on Wednesday Night

Belle & Sebastian may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But for many, the band—originally formed in Glasgow, Scotland—is exactly that: a warm and milky comfort, best enjoyed alone while staring out a window somewhere large and lonely. The group has been putting out twee, folk-caressed pop since the mid-1990s. Their magnum opus, 1996’s If You’re Feeling Sinister (stream it here), rocketed them to fame with lyrical songs like “Seeing Other People” and “Get Me Away from Here, I’m Dying” (above). (The band will play the album in full this summer for the first time in North America.) Shortly after, a series of EPs—including Dog on Wheels and Lazy Line Painter Jane—and 1998’s The Boy with the Arab Strap (stream it here) kept them in indie pop’s graces. In recent years, Belle & Sebastian have shifted away from the simple melodies that made their name, incorporating disco and dance music on 2015’s Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (stream it here). The band’s latest release, a series of three EPs titled How to Solve Our Human Problems (stream it here) (from 2017 and 2018), departs from their early work, too, adding new layers and levels to the largely linear sounds of years past. Keys and drum machines add lift and bounce, but Stuart Murdoch’s vocals ground it all—a familiar and harmonic ’60s-era lilt. The songs are bigger, modern and feel very much like the antidote they claim to be. The intimacy of Sinister may be gone, but Human Problems reminds us it’s good to think bigger than ourselves. Belle & Sebastian play Brooklyn Steel on Wednesday night. Brooklyn five-piece Barrie open the show. —Rachel Brody | @RachelCBrody

[marilynngmesalo]

Born into al-Qaida: Hamza bin Laden’s rise to prominence

Born into al-Qaida: Hamza bin Laden’s rise to prominence Born into al-Qaida: Hamza bin Laden’s rise to prominence https://ift.tt/2OcjLTA

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The boy is only 12 years old and looks even younger and smaller kneeling next to the wreckage of a helicopter, flanked by masked jihadis carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles with bandoliers strapped across their chests.

Hamza bin Laden, with a traditional Arab coffee pot to his right and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to his left leaning against the debris, made his worldwide television debut reciting a poem in a propaganda video just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks planned by his father Osama.

Years after the death of his father at the hands of a U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan, it is now Hamza bin Laden who finds himself squarely in the crosshairs of world powers. In rapid succession in recent weeks, the U.S. put a bounty of up to a $1 million for him; the U.N. Security Council named him to a global sanctions list, sparking a new Interpol notice for his arrest; and his home country of Saudi Arabia revealed it had revoked his citizenship.

This wanted poster released by the U.S. Department of State Rewards for Justice program shows Hamza bin Laden.  (U.S. Department of State Rewards for Justice via AP, File)

Those measures suggest that international officials believe the now 30-year-old militant is an increasingly serious threat. He is not the head of al-Qaida but he has risen in prominence within the terror network his father founded, and the group may be grooming him to stand as a leader for a young generation of militants.

“Hamza was destined to be in his father’s footsteps,” said Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent focused on counterterrorism who investigated al-Qaida’s attack on the USS Cole. “He is poised to have a senior leadership role in al-Qaida.”

Much remains unknown about him — particularly, the key question of where he is — but his life has mirrored al-Qaida’s path, moving quietly and steadily forward, outlasting its offshoot and rival, the Islamic State group.

“LIVING, BREATHING” AL-QAIDA

Hamza bin Laden’s exact date of birth remains disputed, but most put it in 1989. That was a year of transition for his father, who had gained attention for his role in supplying money and arms to the mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Osama bin Laden himself was one of over 50 children of a wealthy, royally connected construction magnate in the kingdom.

As the war wound down, bin Laden emerged as the leader of a new group that sought to leverage that global network brought together in Afghanistan for a new jihad. They named it al-Qaida, or “the base” in Arabic.

Already, bin Laden had met and married Khairiah Saber, a child psychologist from Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jiddah who reportedly had treated bin Laden’s son by another wife, Saad, for autism. She gave birth to Hamza, their only child together, as al-Qaida itself took its first, tentative steps toward the Sept. 11 attacks.

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“This boy has been living, breathing and experiencing the al-Qaida life since age zero,” said Elisabeth Kendall, a senior research fellow at Pembroke College at Oxford University who studies Hamza bin Laden.

Hamza, whose name means “lion” or “strength” in Arabic, was a toddler when the bin Ladens’ life in exile began. They moved to Sudan after bin Laden’s criticism of the kingdom hosting American forces during the 1991 Gulf War alienated the Al Saud royal family.

Under growing international pressure after bin Laden declared holy war on the U.S., Sudan pushed him out and the family moved again to Afghanistan in 1996. Hamza bin Laden was 7.

Al-Qaida’s attacks against the U.S. began in earnest in 1998 with the dual bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Its 2000 suicide attack against the USS Cole off Yemen killed at least 17 sailors.

Hamza bin Laden appeared in photographs alongside his father or in propaganda videos in this time, hanging from monkey bars in military-style training or reciting a poem in classical Arabic, garbed in a camouflage vest.

In this Nov. 5, 2001 image made from video broadcast by the Qatari-based television station Al-Jazeera, a young boy, centre, identified as Hamza bin Laden, reads a poem about Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in Ghazni, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera via APTN, File)

Then came Sept. 11, 2001. The co-ordinated al-Qaida hijacking sent two U.S. commercial airliners slamming into the World Trade Center in New York, one striking the Pentagon and another crashing in rural Pennsylvania, all together killing nearly 3,000 people.

So at age 12, Hamza bin Laden appeared in the video above the wreckage of a helicopter, likely a remnant of the Soviet occupation, not a U.S. warplane as al-Qaida claimed at the time.

He recited a poem praising his father’s ally, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, as the “lion of Kabul,” ran in a field with other boys and held a pistol above his head as if fearless of American airstrikes. It marked the last moments before the U.S.-led invasion would topple the Taliban and send Osama bin Laden fleeing into the mountains of Tora Bora and, from there, Pakistan.

Hamza later remembered receiving prayer beads from his father with his brother Khalid before leaving him.

“It was as if we pulled out our livers and left them there,” he wrote.

And then, like his father, Hamza bin Laden disappeared.

THE IRAN YEARS

Hamza bin Laden and his mother followed other al-Qaida members into Pakistan amid the U.S.-led coalition bombing campaign on Afghanistan. From there, they crossed into Iran, where other al-Qaida leaders hid them in a series of safe houses, according to experts and analysis of documents seized after the U.S. Navy SEAL team raid that killed the elder bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

The connection between al-Qaida and Iran has been a murky one, firmly disputed by Tehran. Iran, the Mideast’s predominant Shiite power, on its face seems a strange home for the Sunni Arab militants. Sunni extremists views Shiites as heretics and target them for violence.

But al-Qaida under Osama bin Laden made inroads with Iran during his days in Sudan, according to the U.S. government’s 9-11 Commission. The commission said al-Qaida militants later received training in Lebanon from the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which Iran backs to this day.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Iran allowed al-Qaida militants to pass through its borders without receiving stamps in their passports or with visas obtained at its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, according to a 19-page, unsigned report found among Osama bin Laden’s personnel effects in the Abbottabad raid. That helped the organization’s Saudi members avoid suspicion. They also had contact with Iranian intelligence agents, according to the report.

Iran offered al-Qaida fighters “money and arms and everything they need, and offered them training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, in return for striking American interests in Saudi Arabia,” the report said.

This matches up with the 9-11 Commission’s report, which found that eight of the Sept. 11 hijackers passed through Iran before arriving in the United States. However, the commission “found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9-11 attack.”

It’s unclear why Iran allowed the al-Qaida members, including bin Laden’s children and wives, to enter the country immediately after the 9-11 attacks. Iran’s president at the time, the reformist politician Mohamed Khatami, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the attack, and Iran helped the ensuing U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. However, by January 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush declared Iran as part of an “Axis of Evil” alongside Iraq and North Korea.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.

By April 2003, just weeks into the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iranian intelligence officials had had enough of al-Qaida being beyond their control. It rounded up all the al-Qaida members it could find and detained them, apparently at a series of military bases or other closed-off compounds, according to contemporaneous accounts by several al-Qaida militants.

CAPITVITY

In Iran, Hamza’s mother Khairiah Saber urged the al-Qaida lieutenants there to take her son — now a teenager — under their wing. Hamza wrote to his father recounting the Islamic theology books he studied in detention, while expressing frustration that he was not among the jihadis in battle.

“The mujahedeen have impressed greatly in the field of long victories, and I am still standing in my place, prohibited by the steel shackles,” Hamza wrote in one of his letters found at Abbottabad. “I dread spending the rest of my young adulthood behind iron bars.”

But those shackles ended up keeping him and the other al-Qaida members safe as the U.S. under Bush and later President Barack Obama targeted militants across the Mideast in a campaign of drone strikes. Hamza’s half brother Saad escaped Iranian custody and made it to Pakistan, only to be immediately killed by an American strike in 2009.

“That probably saved (Hamza) that he was in Iran during that period where everyone else was being knocked off, detained,” said Tricia Bacon, an assistant professor at American University who focuses on al-Qaida and once worked in counterterrorism at the State Department. “It probably was one of the better places to be able to re-emerge at a later time.”

Hamza during this time even married into al-Qaida, picking a daughter of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an Egyptian who the U.S. says helped plan the November 1998 embassy attacks. The two had two children, Osama and Khairiah, named after his parents.

“I ask God to place their image in your eye,” Hamza wrote his father. “He created them to serve you.”

By this time, rumours of al-Qaida members being in Iran had reached a fever pitch. A teenage daughter of Osama bin Laden, Eman, somehow escaped imprisonment in late 2009 and made her way to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. Iran’s then-Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at the time: “We don’t know how this person went to the embassy or how she entered the country.”

Khalid bin Laden, another son of the wanted terrorist, later would write a letter that was posted online and addressed to Iran’s supreme leader saying his siblings were “beaten and repressed.”

After years of imprisonment, an opportunity emerged for the al-Qaida members held in Iran. Gunmen in late 2008 kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in northwestern Pakistan. He would be freed in March 2010 as Hamza and others also left custody.

Osama bin Laden thought of sending Hamza to Qatar for religious scholarship, but his son instead went to Pakistan’s Waziristan province, where he asked for weapons training, according to a letter to the elder bin Laden. His mother left for Abbottabad immediately, where her husband was in hiding, with Hamza hoping to come as well.

But on May 2, 2011, the Navy SEAL team raided Abbottabad, killing Osama bin Laden and Khalid, as well as others. Saber and other wives living in the house were imprisoned. Hamza again disappeared.

REEMERGENCE

In August 2015, a video emerged on jihadi websites of Ayman al-Zawahri, the current leader of al-Qaida, introducing “a lion from the den of al-Qaida” — Hamza bin Laden. The younger bin Laden was not shown in the video, speaking only in an audio recording. With a voice deepened from the tinny recitals he offered as a child, he praised al-Qaida’s franchises and other militants.

“What America and its allies fear the most is that we take the battlefield from Kabul, Baghdad, and Gaza to Washington, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, and to take it to all the American, Jewish, and Western interests in the world,” he said.

Since then, he has been featured in around a dozen al-Qaida messages, delivering speeches on everything from the war in Syria to Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as U.S. president. His style resembles his father’s, with references to religious studies and snippets of poetry, a contrast to the gory beheading videos of the Islamic State group, which had risen up from al-Qaida in Iraq to seize territory across Iraq and Syria.

“He’s not blood and guts,” said Kendall, the senior research fellow at Pembroke College at Oxford University. “His speeches are more literary and educated.”

While al-Zawahri still controls al-Qaida, the multiple messages have raised speculation that the terror group may be trying to plan for the future by putting forward a fresh face — albeit one they have so far only showed in old photographs of Hamza bin Laden as a child.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State group has seen its territory slip away as it was pounded by a U.S.-led coalition, Russian airstrikes and Iranian-backed forces.

That has left al-Qaida as the prominent jihadi group standing.

“I think as ISIS’ strength continues to deteriorate, the international community has perhaps realized that there are other terrorist groups — including the ones that never went away, such as al-Qaida,” said Sajjan Gohel, the international security director of the United Kingdom-based Asia-Pacific Foundation, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.

“In fact, al-Qaida has been quietly growing, regaining strength, letting ISIS take all the hits while they quietly reconstitute themselves,” he added.

The State Department named Hamza bin Laden as a “global terrorist” in 2017, then followed up in February with the bounty on his head as the U.N. blacklisted him.

The designations show officials consider him a threat.

“There is probably other intelligence that indicates something’s happening and that’s what put this thing on the front burner,” said Soufan, the former FBI agent.

But what’s happening within al-Qaida remains a mystery. Hamza bin Laden hasn’t been heard from since a message in March 2018, in which he threatened the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Why remains in question. Rumours have circulated he himself was targeted in an attack. The CIA also published video of him in November 2017 at his wedding in Iranian detention, showing the first publicly known photographs of him since childhood.

An image from that video now graces his U.S. wanted poster.

“Will he be successful? We don’t know. Will he live long to do what his father was able to do? We have no idea. We might drone him tomorrow,” Soufan said. “But this is the plan. This is what they wanted to do. This is what he is destined, I believe, to do from the beginning.”

Click for update news Bangla news https://ift.tt/2F7RyJE world news

[thepermanentrainpress]

CONCERT REVIEW: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN W/ JAPANESE BREAKFAST AT THE VOGUE THEATRE - JUNE 28TH, 2018

Japanese Breakfast, quite simply, really rock. The solo project of Michelle Zauner (whom, despite the name, is actually of Korean and Jewish descent), this flashy set was a great warm-up to kick off the main attraction of the evening. Dreamy, colourful, bright changing hues of yellow, orange and red filled the stage to Michelle’s high-pitched vocals and the band’s alternative riffs. Circular spotlight patterns of spirals flashed around the theatre as well. Zauner was genuinely grateful and excited to be touring with Belle and Sebastian, thanking them several times for bringing the band along—“and for the expensive alcohol.” She also mentioned the group had driven 20 hours to play in Vancouver, “and it’s good to be back in the warm regions of Cascadia.”

The Vogue holds about 1300 people, allowing for a good-sized crowd but also feeling intimate and close. The sound carries really well, so even sitting in the balcony, I could feel the sound pulsing through me as if I was next to the stage. Japanese Breakfast finished with a drawn-out, epic finale with long instrumental solos. It was groovy music that could have and should have been danced to, but there was very little movement among the audience. Vancouver audiences are often stereotyped for being still, and considering how great this set was, there was a lot of truth to that perception at this show.

There are few indie rock groups as respected, prolific, and with a legacy like Belle and Sebastian. Since their debut in 1996, they’ve released nine albums and eight EPs, allowing for a great mix of material to perform live. The setlist varied between tour dates and even amongst their two shows in Vancouver, but featured songs from their entire career. (Frontman Stuart Murdoch quipped “We’re going to have a completely new set tomorrow. We’re going to write 20 new songs.”) I was personally delighted to hear “The Fox in the Snow” from 1996’s If You’re Feeling Sinister, though a bit disappointed to not hear more from that album. I’m sure I wasn’t the only fan in the audience who got chills when the opening notes from “The Boy with the Arab Strap” from the album of the same name started playing—one of their best-known and prettiest tunes. I was also impressed with the way they handle their live music: there are a lot of instruments to be performed, and members were often switching around what they played and where they were standing on stage.

Unlike some groups, particularly in the older indie band category, Belle and Sebastian and especially Murdoch had an exciting and light-hearted stage presence throughout the night. They spoke to, joked with, and danced with audience members directly, even inviting a bunch of people to dance on the stage towards the end of the night. Murdoch spoke of how he enjoyed being in Canada and Vancouver, “seeing our little boats… My five-year-old son told me he saw whales in the harbour and I thought he was joking, and then I see on the news there really were orcas there!” The group don’t take themselves too seriously, either: Stuart addressed the band’s “mid period” (“or perhaps we’re so old now this is our early period… middle period is the old late period!”) – generally considered their least successful era with songs written by guitarist Stevie Jackson – and then played a few songs from said era. Murdoch, with a laugh, said this was done “so we don’t disappear up our own arseholes tonight.”

Perhaps the most intricate piece of the show were the visuals. It was a spectacular slideshow displaying everything from amateur and home movie footage, to 8-bit video games, to photos submitted by fans from all around Vancouver. I’ve never been to a show with such low key music, and this much detail in its visuals. Practically every song was something different: a colourful pattern or the opening video, a black and white “vintage” film describing an “antique music box.” One song featured a full-length “lip dub,” performed at a high school.

Belle and Sebastian have been entertaining and performing in their distinct Scottish folk-rock style for over two decades, and they’re still going strong. They may never have exploded in popularity, but the show on this night was lovely, fun, and rewarding to old and new fans alike.

Written by: Cazzy Lewchuk

[albumoftheweek]

Album of the Week - 59

Around the turn of the century, in St John's street, a stone's throw away from City University in London, there was a public library called Finsbury Library. A quick google search confirms that the library is still there and standing...

Back then, while at Uni money was scarce and internet was slow. Most albums you could download were recent and mostly heavy rock/nu-metal.  Most films you could watch were bad-quality downloads with slow speeds from Napster, eMule and KaZaA.  

A guy I used to hang out with while at Uni introduced me to the concept of borrowing albums from a public library!  And boy oh boy did Finsbury Library have a plethora of CD's to listen to.  I discovered and liked (or disliked) numerous bands during that time, through borrowing those CDs.  Pavement, the Pogues, the Smiths, the Pixies, Sonic Youth.  I typically would borrow them for 2 weeks, forget to return them, get fined and beg to have the fee waived (mostly successfully).  I would also copy the albums on empty CD-Rs so that I could then have them for myself.

That type of music curation was actually very useful and particularly cheap.  And tell you what... back then, cheap was the name of the game!

Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

Belle & Sebastian has to be my go-to band from those library-borrowing days.  I had heard of them before, but I had never listened to their music.  When I first listened to them (I borrowed 2 albums together, "I Fought in a War" and "The Boy With the Arab Strap"), I thought they were a joke.  This weird, melancholic voice, with a bunch of almost childish melodies and a set of songs that were so sarcastic that I felt I couldn't get into them.

But then the music unraveled itself.  Listening to the songs a couple of times helped.  But the thing that won me was Stuart Murdoch's voice and lyrics.  The guy is so witty and his melodies are so cute.  In places, it might remind you of The Decemberists, only without the country/americana feel.

There's an innocence in this music.  The instrumentation feels almost basic.  The way the lyrics are put together is so simple yet effective.  You have to love the everyday-British references.  All told through the eyes of a bunch of young Glaswegians.  I adored the simplicity of this music.  

I borrowed "If You're Feeling Sinister" after returning the other 2 albums (there was a limit of 5 albums each time).  "If You're Feeling Sinister" is rightfully considered their best album.  Coming out in 1996, just a few months after their debut "Tigermilk", it's a fantastic, beautiful album with an innocence that resonates in all the songs.

My favourites are: "Like Dylan in the Movies", "If You're Feeling Sinister", "The Stars of Track & Field", "The Fox in the Snow", "Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying".  Listen to them while you are returning to cold London, during a crisp, sunny, frozen day.  That's the best way to enjoy this music.

I love you kiddo.  Can't wait to have you back tomorrow.  I've missed you sooo much.  I don’t like not having you around!

xxxx

https://open.spotify.com/album/4usPTyIIgnAZ9eiItfEYSK

[rocksbackpages]

New for RBP subscribers this week

“I guess when you’re young, your record’s playing everywhere... and girls get pregnant.”

— Reggae deity HORACE ANDY reminisces (The Independent, 1996)

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