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Belle & Sebastian
2. Lazy Line Painter Jane
Featuring a glorious guest vocal from Monica Queen, organs swirl and hands clap over a gentle melody as Stuart and Monica take turns to tell Jane’s small town coming of age story where small town minds surround Jane and her big dreams.
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Belle & Sebastian
3. Legal Man
Indie pop at its finest! Bongos, sitars and hammond organs all feature - along with fun backing vocals by The Maisonettes. It’s a mod revivalist romp rendering services you may reasonably require - with “ba ba ba ba”’s I cannot resist!
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Belle & Sebastian
4. Funny Little Frog
My eye sight’s fading - my hearing’s dim - I can’t get insured for the state I am in…
There they go again soundtracking my life 😂 B&S channeling a Northern Soul vibe on this joyful, but bittersweet, song about a one-sided crush. I can relate!
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Belle & Sebastian
5. Jonathan David
How I remember it - Jonathan was David's best friend in the Bible. David married Jonathan's sister who helped David escape when Saul (their dad) wanted to kill David. Almost that, to a bouncy, jangly tune - with Stuart Jackson taking lead vocals.
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Belle & Sebastian
6. You Don’t Send Me
Breakup’s eh! Trying to convince yourself that the person you loved was nothing but trouble and weren’t the one, to take some of the edge off of the breakup. A sassy B&S and, with Trevor Horn on production duties, getting us on a dance floor 🙌🏻
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Belle & Sebastian
7. Unnecessary Drama
This is my life, this is my so-called life…
Get your harmonica out! This is, as the kids would say, a banger! Getting back out there and having relationships that mostly blow up in your face - are B&S soundtracking my every move… 😂
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Belle & Sebastian
8. Sleep The Clock Around
This personal reflection on awkward emotions and lack of confidence is a song that resonates with my teenage self! I love the way this song builds together with the girl-boy vocals - and ends with a bagpipe, which is strangely relaxing…
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Belle & Sebastian
9. If You’re Feeling Sinister
Faith forms part of Stuart Murdoch’s writing - but never in a preachy way. While this song has a spring in it’s step, loneliness, boredom, lethargy, suicide, and the fallibility of “the vicar or whatever” feature in the dark lyrics.
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Belle & Sebastian
10. The State I Am In
Opening their debut album Tigermilk - a delicate song in which we are invited into their sweet and strange world! It had me at the moment his brother stood up with his sailor friend on his sister’s wedding day to announce that he’s gay 😁😂
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Belle & Sebastian
11. I Fought In A War
A soldier’s letter home to his sweetheart with beautiful, sweeping strings. It’s not a protest song - Stuart Murdoch described it as a personal song inspired by the atmosphere of the short story For Esmé - with Love and Squalor by JD Salinger
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Belle & Sebastian
12. The Party Line
In which B&S head to the dance floor! Although electronics have appeared in their music previously, this is an all out electro pop banger. Is it a political statement or a critique on superficiality? When pop is this good - does it matter 🙌🏻
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Belle & Sebastian
13. I Want The World To Stop
I remember reading a review describing this as a cry from a cold bed in the early morning hours on a cloudy, damp day! We’ve all been there! Another song with a theme about pining for a simpler time - can the days stop moving so fast!!
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Belle & Sebastian
14. When We Were Very Young
B&S in melancholic mood describing a commuter, who is contrasting some of the dumb and trivial stuff he and his mates used to care about when they were much younger to the more grounded concerns now that they’ve all got kids and dystopia
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Belle & Sebastian
15. Marx & Engels
Marx and Engels are the writers of The Communist Manifesto, about how the working class can rise and defeat the bourgeouisie. Chin stroking material! I like this because it mentions my home town of Wallasey - the girl in the song is from there.
