For a while there this album was harder to track down than a Nepalese Yeti. Tigermilk was recorded while Belle and Sebastian were still in Art College and was submitted as part of their final year project. This meant that it originally had a limited pressing of a few thousand copies. Thankfully for those not able to afford the £400 per copy asking price it was re-released in 1999. It is hard to believe that 'Tigermilk' was recorded on a limited budget because there is such a lush feel to it. 'Expectations' for example is a complicated sounding beast with trumpets, flutes, strings and guitars flying in from every angle while the lyrics spout from Stuart Murdoch's mouth like water from a classy fountain in Barcelona.

'She's Losing It' is a classic example of Belle and Sebastian turning a good story into a fantastical musical show. Murdoch pours the lyrics like honey on a pancake while the sweetest of accompaniments surrounds his words. Despite this if you listen closely, the story has an unsettling abuse theme. Belle and Sebastian consistently display an intelligence to back up their undeniable musical acumen and you can quite easily browse their inlay cards like you would a clever magazine. 'Tigermilk' has a breakneck speed (by B&S's standards!), with tracks such as 'You're Just A Baby' steaming along under the guidance of some chugging guitars and shadowy organic shards. The album is the furthest Belle and Sebastian have ventured from their folk inclinations. They may have mellowed and honed their sound since this release but looking back 'Tigermilk' sounds hugely refreshing.

'Electronic Renaissance' is an interesting departure. Sounding all synth pop, aha, buggles and resembling thoroughly ill-fitting trousers in an otherwise classy suit, it is a wacky OMD homage that is easy to swoon to (well, after 5 pints of stout anyway) especially that 'Take On Me' drum machine sequence. A re-recorded version of 'The State I Am In' appears on the 'Dogs On Wheels' e.p. and is one of those Belle and Sebastian tunes that isn't immediately obvious. Repeated plays reveal the glitter hidden under those delicate vocals and simple musical arrangements. Some might regard it as twee, but it has a beating heart that is twice as aerobic as any muscle bound tracksuit.

'My Wandering Days Are Over' contains the most gorgeous trumpets at its heart as it swaggers with such effortless grace you'd wish all musicians would put in the same effort. 'I Don't Love Anyone' starts out like Counting Crows but soon swings with such melodious harmony you could be forgiven for thinking that you were shipwrecked on an island inhabited only by finely tuned instruments playing sweetly in unison. The album ends with 'Mary Jo' that begins with dreamy flutes and an acoustic guitar and then mushrooms into a string rich wallowing chorus that transcends time and musical style. It is a song that could have been written two hundred years ago with a resonance that remains so vital to this day.

Belle and Sebastian's debut set a high standard. Luckily for us they rarely let this standard slip on any of the subsequent releases. They remain a modern day pop phenomena, untarnished by media exposure, happy to release astoundingly touching records. If you haven't discovered them yet, imagine something so good it’ll make you feel a decade younger.

Rating: 8/10

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‘We’ve made some pretty messy records’, says Stuart Murdoch, ringleader of the cirque du soleil that is Belle and Sebastian, on 2003’s ‘Fans Only’ DVD. This comes a minute after a mission statement of sorts, as Murdoch grasps for the words to describe why he started the band: a desire to ‘make the most tuneful, lush sounding records imaginable’. For ten years now, while throwing out more tuneful, catchier songs than anyone else, the band has also been edging along the taut tightrope from messy to lush. Their early records are laden with lisping voices, faint strings, tinny brass and background fuzz. In short, they sound like precious lost recordings from the early seventies, with careworn dents and scratches that fall just to the charming side of shambolic: Murdoch’s voice breaking on the demo version of ‘The State I Am In’, or unzipping his cardigan during the intro to ‘Expectations’. Albums number three and four moved toward lush, layered pop, taking in new instruments and influences: the bagpipes on ‘Sleep The Clock Around’, the crisp harpsichord on ‘The Model’, and the Northern Soul vibe of ‘Dirty Dream #2’. The giant step came in 2000, with the single ‘Legal Man’. Advertised by the band as, ‘like Dirty Dream #2, but dirtier’, its congas, organ, sitar and dirty big kick-off riff matched against daft lyrical innuendo, a snappy chorus and, crucially, beefed up production, so that ‘Legal Man’ sounded more like a chart record than anything the band had ever done. It made the top twenty, and landed them on Top Of The Pops. It was no flash in the pan, either. Their next single, ‘Jonathan David’ followed in a similar vein, all high tempo and cheesy organ, and their last album, 2003’s ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ showed a change from the chamber music of yore, with stuff like ‘Step Into My Office Baby’ (more innuendo) and ‘I’m a Cuckoo’ (more big riffs). Now we get ‘The Life Pursuit’, six fine albums in (not counting the collections of EP’s and singles or the half-baked soundtrack), and there may be no going back; the tightrope has been crossed.

We arrive at a classroom. There is a girl daydreaming her worries away. This is what you might call Belle and Sebastian playing on their home turf, with a biblical lesson and a wink to androgyny to boot. Despite the poppy songwriting style and delivery, there is a familiar ring to the line-up of props and characters throughout the album. There are, as you can expect on their records, kids with troubles at home. There are punks, tea and gin, religion, kinky s*x and a launderette. Again, there are a few songs stylised after other bands (‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ dropped a nod to Thin Lizzy and The Clash amongst others) with some very 80’s sounds on the excellent ‘We Are The Sleepyheads’ and on ‘Song For Sunshine’ with its Cocteau Twins pastiche of a chorus. And, as usual, they’ve lodged the odd swear word to keep you on your toes, especially where an expletive is buried in a benign, milky ditty, like a landmine in a meadow.

Another thing you can always count is for Belle and Sebastian (or more accurately, their songs’ protagonists) to be is refreshingly uncool - at times provincial or mawkish or just plain tripped up by puberty. On ‘The Blues Are Still Blue’, Murdoch is still acting the gauche schoolkid (‘I got a letter from my mamma which my stoopid dog has ate’) but the song is dressed up in funky threads, and moves with a swagger and confidence in a way it could gatecrash David Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’ and get away with it. You sense the band is having more fun and taking chances. It’s a marked change for Murdoch to sing ‘I left my lady at the launderette’ - he’d never have called his girl his ‘lady’ before, it would have been a hint at a liaison with a wallflower named Jean or Jane or Mary Jo. Now he’s Sly Stone, and somehow his girl is doing his washing.

‘The Blues Are Still Blue’ is released as a single this week, and it would be my first pick as a single from the album, with its clever, simple, singable chorus and ‘proper’ guitar solo. There are plenty of contenders, though; ‘The Life Pursuit’ plays like a singles collected and most of the songs wouldn’t sound out of place on morning radio. Even the chorus-less ‘Another Sunny Day’ could qualify by virtue of its relentless pep, as could ‘For The Price Of a Cup Of Tea’, which shows that as their song titles approach self-parody, they still play it for kicks with the ‘If She Wants Me’ style skank, and the quintessential Belle and Sebastian lyric, unhip but fun, ‘For the price of a cup of tea, you’d get a line of coke’.

‘Funny Little Frog’, the single which warmed us all for the winter, and the other similarly chirpy and danceable songs are accessible and immediate, but after a few spins, we will call for something more substantial past all the froth. The straight narratives of ‘Sukie in the Graveyard’ and ‘White Collar Boy’ lack the poetic fractured lyrics of, say, ‘Dress Up In You’, one of the more traditional Belle and Sebastian tunes here, with its trumpets and milquetoast ‘Nice Day For a Sulk’ bob. Despite the abundance of chipper chart material on this album, their forté remains bittersweet songs, like the achingly pretty ‘To Be Myself Completely’ and its expressive violin melody, or like ‘Mornington Crescent’ which brings the album to a stirring close, with a sweet guitar and piano break, around which Murdoch drops vignettes suffused with guilt over a laid-back Sunday morning beat, sketching a scene with effortless turn of phrase, alert to everyday details and moments of anticipation, drawing anxiety out of a pregnant pause.

On Belle and Sebastian’s 1999 EP ‘This Is Just a Modern Rock Song’ (notable for the stunning ‘Slow Graffiti’), Murdoch sung on the muddy lead track, ‘we’re not terrific but we’re competent’. It was an excellent joke, as the truth was, of course, the other way around. For better or worse though, it now looks as if cold competency has crept up on the band, and we’re lumped with it. We should have seen it coming, though. Murdoch gave us another clue on ‘Fans Only’, ‘‘You look at each other and you think, come on, let’s make a fabulous sounding record this time. Let’s make a record that’s as good as, y’know, ‘Make Me Smile’ by Cockney Rebel or ‘Marquee Moon’ by Television’. This is it.

Rating: 8/10

Tony Kelleher
03.04.2006


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Belle and Sebastian have released several memorable singles. Each comes complete with 3 or 4 tracks that individually have the quality to be an a-side on their own merit. Most are absent from their albums so the singles have achieved a special significance. Who could ever forget the majesty of 'Slow Graffiti' ('Modern Rock Is Rubbish' e.p.) or the wide-eyed energy of 'Belle and Sebastian' ('Dog On Wheels' e.p.). Jonathan David, the title track of this 2001 release is a little hard to pin down. It's got the Madness laced piano introduction and a heart that languishes in the distant past (oh that glorious 60's Wurlitzer). It speeds along at a frantic pace until at the end the vocals merge and deliver another piece of historic pop. The artwork on the cd has a religious theme (what?). Well to be more precise a Belle and Sebastian take on the David and Goliath story. Of course the inner sleeve clarifies in that familiar sly nudge and wink style that fans have become accustomed to.

'Take Your Carriage Clock And Shove It' is the closest thing you'll get to a cover of 'I've Never Being To Me' (by Charlene) without repeating the Verve/Rolling Stones hot potato of a couple years ago. In saying that it is a glorious piece of vitriol wrapped in a tender musical mould. It portrays the board room scene on retirement day with the loyal subject giving his farewell speech. The speech not only turns heads but continues until all and sundry are semi-decapitated. Take the lyrics out of the equation and the mix you're left with sounds as fragile and heartfelt as anything Burt Bacharach could dream up. Underneath though the disquiet is palpable, a warning perhaps to all slaves to the wage.

Belle and Sebastian deliver their message in a wry manner. This means that their musicianship often takes a backseat where it bleats beautifully under the cover of a torrent of words. 'The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner' has been a live favourite for years and perhaps loses some of its impact in the transition to the studio. That said it saddles up and heads for the nearest sunset with the wind in its hair. The guitars have a Dire Straits feel about them but the groove is lazily addictive. Stuart Murdoch sounds tired and emotional but tuned in to his bands scattered playing. 'Jonathan David' is perhaps not one of Belle and Sebastian's most effective singles because it is misses the killer 4th track. Be warned, however, as the quality is still high enough to have you gasping for air as your heart skips several consecutive beats for its duration. Belle and Sebastian are a band deserving of every single plaudit that has ever being directed at them.



Rating: 6/10


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Belle and Sebastian's startling second album arrived at the perfect time. Britpop had taken the charts by storm and indie music was beginning to infiltrate the mainstream. IYFS sounded so completely different, full of folk fuelled moments, insightful lyrics and sleeve notes that tickle that funny bone you thought you never had. IYFS offered a delightful alternative to the Oasis rock and roll beast, it might not have been an obvious record but most classics rarely are. There is an aura to the grooves that approaches cuts like the Stone Roses that was released a few years earlier. The fact that success was still light years away meant that cult type things started happening. Scant interviews, dodgy half-lit photographs (it was next to impossible to find out what they looked like), ultra loyal fans and a v-sign cast in the general direction of the music industry. A band forging ahead by doing it their way, with the obvious result that sales were hit (in the interim at least).

So what does the music sound like? Well it´s low key a lot of the time and at first you might wonder what all the fuss is about. After a time though the quality shines through. 'Stars of Track and Field' is the ambitious opener/slow burner that reveals its beauty by about the third listen. Find yourself humming it incessantly until your concerned folks call for medical assistance. Stuart Murdoch may hide behind Nick Drake's cloak but underneath there is genuine talent. 'Seeing Other People' is the star of the IYFS show, a skidding piano riff, a xylophone plinking join the racing vocal that knows exactly where it’s heading. 'Me And The Major' and 'Like Dylan In The Movies' continue in the same vein and you wonder whether they can maintain this pace and quality for the whole album. The answer is most definitely yes, because even though ‘Fox In The Snow’ brings the gallop to a canter it's a stallion of a tune.

There's a lovely swing that runs right through the album that gives you the confidence to play it to your friends and feel proud that you discovered them first. Watch your status in your circle of friends elevate as a result. Crack open the fake champagne to the celebratatory strains of 'Mayfly' and get drunk on the closing track 'Judy And The Dream Of Horses'. While a lot of albums store the weaker tracks near the end, don't be fooled here as it's a romper stomper effort that develops out of humble beginnings. If You're Feeling Sinister is near impossible to fault. The cover design has a plush red texture, mimicking in some way the colour of your cheeks after one too many listens. Belle and Sebastian have a back catalogue to die for, for many this is their defining moment.


Rating: 8/10



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Oh tread carefully you innocent ones, it's got one of those 'Parental Advisory, Explicit Lyrics' stickers. Must be good then eh! I reckon this sort of sticker is a ploy to inflate sales, a dark and sinister marketing tool that more often than not achieves its aim. It lends teenagers in need of a way to further infuriate their guardians a vehicle to do so. There are so many albums with this much-abused sticker that I'm surprised no one has thought of a 'Teenage Advisory - No Explicit Lyrics'. It would surely appeal to the over-35's. So there were bad boys before Eminem, although you'd be hard pressed to be offended while listening to Ill Communication as the lyrics are indiscernible a lot of the time. The album was recorded in 1994 and entered the mainstream when 'Sabotage' and 'Sure Shot' became popular. A lot of ‘Ill Communication’s success could be put down to the clever video for 'Sabotage' which is a pastiche of 70's cop shows. The album sprawls over 20 tracks, which makes it close to impossible to take in, in a single listen.

The Beasties sound is a fusion of rap and hip-hop but they are prone to throwing in the sweetest guitar rolls that rounds things off nicely. The lyrics are intelligent (use the inlay card!) and rebellious and there are moments where the humour is side splittingly funny (who needs apple pie when you have mashed potato!). 'Sure Shot' slides on a repetitive flute groove that toddlers to Grans will find hard to resist. Incidentally the dog barking at the start is supposed to be saying 'I Love You'! 'Root Down' has that San Francisco flares and hot weather feel to it. So much so that dancing to it afro-less might feel like dancing naked in the rain. It is followed by the albums centrepiece 'Sabotage' where Adam Yauch more or less screams, records scratch, guitars tumble and a chorus of hoods join in at various intervals. It sounds a mess but is a piece of modern pop genius. The first 8 tracks are an album on their own and I rarely go beyond this point because all the juicier tracks are contained here. Things get a little skewed but not wayward from here on in. There is the sense of a bit of creative doodling going on highlighted by tracks like 'Flutterman's Rule' and 'Ricky's Theme' that provide gorgeous backdrops.

While Ill Communication is essentially a modern day production it has one foot set firmly in the corridors of pop history. This unique blend of influences gives the album a polished feel. For those not sold on Rap/Hip-Hop style (I've got my hand up) I would urge you to give Ill Communication a listen. Good music is precious; it should be embraced even when it comes from genres that are normally a turn off. This is a great album, why not get it together and do the necessary.


Rating: 7/10



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Ash's image as precocious teenagers was a hard one to dispel. While they moved into their twenties with this album their tunes continued into an adolescent vein. There is nothing wrong with this of course; it's just that an album of full sugar sweet pop can sometimes grate. Perhaps the biggest hurdle Ash have to overcome was the suspicion that many of their best tunes are quite throwaway. They tend to be pleasing on the ear for an initial period but somehow lose their charm over time. The cause is their direct approach to song writing. The effect is legions of admirers but a distinct lack of devoted followers. Take 'Shining Light' for example. This is a superb, buoyant pop song with a crystal clear chorus and several notable guitar moments. What more could you ask for, you might ask? Well, for one, in order for music to endure it must reach the parts other tunes don't. While not completely formulaic, Ash's music largely follows the angle they forged back in their 'Trailer' days. 'Candy' is a case of a song way past its grow up date; the strings sound artificial and unnecessary and the vocal delivery is just too tired to be affecting. This is dross and should really have fallen down one of the cracks in the studio floor.

Elsewhere Tim Wheeler has better success. 'Submission' has full on Primal Scream tendencies. You almost expect the singer to breathe Kowalski but of course he doesn't. There is a darker plot at work that provides some solace from the stomach retching happiness elsewhere. 'Someday' is also quite neat, even if there is a drafty hollow lurking at its core. The subtle string arrangements are welcome but overall it's a little too loose to really land a sucker punch. With a bit more work this could have been much better. The power pop continues unabated on 'Pacific Palisades'. The drumming is manic and while we're on the subject I have to say that Rick McMurray, Ash's drummer, really gets on my nerves. He just seems out of sorts in the rock and roll scheme of things. I always get the feeling he should be holding a petrol pump rather than a drumstick. I know this sounds cruel and I guess to be fair to him he was there with that shambolic hairstyle well before David Beckham.

'Burn Baby Burn' is the quintessential shiny pop song that Ash hold the patent on. Bleeding glorious jangling riffs through Wheelers vocal onslaught succeeds in raising the pulse. 'Walking Barefoot' also pushes all the right buttons and lends a touching reminder of those long summer days as a child. It's about as grand as Ash get without sounding out of their depth. 'Sometimes' is superbly fresh; the fine guitar barrage never drowns out Wheeler's melodic vocals. 'Nicole' is also hugely impressive. It takes its cue from alt Americana and friskily appears at the other end with distinction. 'There's A Star' completes a treble of strong tracks. Big, bold and fulfilling its own huge aspiration, nothing else on the album really comes close. Free All Angels is let down by 'World Domination', the final track. It's an aimless punk rock workout that puts a shabby seal on the album. It doesn't quite leave a bad taste in the mouth but that let down feeling is hard to dispel.

'Free All Angels' proved that Ash needed to reset their musical compass. Their undoubted talent would see them better served down avenues that don't rely on teenage observations (listen to the childish romp that is 'Cherry Bomb' and you'll see what I mean). Four albums and still peddling the same subject matter tends to turn people off. A new direction would see the band flourish. On the positive side given the talent on offer worldwide domination will come. 'Free All Angels' is good fare and taken in moderation it will certainly brighten up your day. A success in anybody's book then.

Rating: 5/10



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The first thing about Architecture in Helsinki is that, as far as music groups go, they have the best name yet. So modern, so cosmopolitan, so nothing whatsoever to do with an indie collective from Melbourne. It’s perfect. The second thing about Architecture in Helsinki is that, when it comes to the conventions of song structure, they have some authority issues. Verse, chorus, repeat, middle eight, yadda yadda yadda? The hell with that; let’s go for parts 1 to 4. Nothing too prog rock or anything, mind. But I mean, with three minutes to play with, why limit yourself to just one pop song? Why not four?

The opener, ‘Neverevereverdid’ settles for just three parts; (i) a soundtrack to a hammy horror movie; (ii) a number from a school play where the kids who didn’t own instruments were allowed raid their kitchen for any utensils that might make a noise when struck; (iii) an erratic yet jaunty piano-driven chorus/verse/chorus, you know like, a song. It’s all rather breakneck and breathtaking; there are more ideas packed into this one song than you’ll find on an entire album from the next set of NME-sponsored guys with ties. It’s not that Architecture In Helsinki like to dwell too long on anything, though. At the end of the second part, as the rattling pots and pans quicken with the introduction of the drums and a danceable bassline, I found myself bracing for take-off and guitars to rock in, only for all the build-up to be swept away and replaced by the wonky piano. It was like getting absorbed in some T.V. programme only for someone else in the room to change the channel.

The catchiest tune here is ‘Wishbone’, at least for a minute, with its tambourine style and harmonies from ‘Grease’. A fiddle melody to swoon to arrives at the second verse, only for the momentum to be cut short, bizarrely, by a brief lullaby which brings the song to a dead stop. Before starting up again. The interruptions are milder on ‘It’s 5’, another joyous pop song clocking in at two minutes; this one with a wonderful ending as the instrumentation cuts back a notch for some group effort ‘It! Is! 5!’ shouts. ‘Tiny Paintings’ has a similar finish as the keyboards are put on hold for singer Cameron Bird to yell, ‘I found you in the lost and found’, before the keyboards come back to finish the job with an allsorts assortment of percussion.

‘In Case We Die’ is an avalanche of attention-grabbing moments and quirky, clever touches. It must have been a marketer’s dream to pick the thirty-second taster snippets to sell the album on, with set-pieces like the extra beat as the record appears to skip in the verse of ‘Do The Whirlwind’, in between a brass solo and a sitar solo, or the silly voice, then the list of names, then the pedal steel guitar on ‘The Cemetery’. It counts as some relief that they take a couple of breathers during all this. ‘Maybe You Can Owe Me’ falls somewhere between wistful and chilled out, as lyrically they finally move on from the random-phrase-generator and betray some emotion, bracing for a future rendezvous between a couple with a past. A little loose time is even conceded at the end for the guitar and spacey computer effects to meander and dissolve away. Later, on the delicious ‘Need To Shout’, the sound approaches a maturity bordering on relaxed, with a mellow cocktail of tropical bird calls, woodwind and steel drums, where even the shouts seems distant under the haze of rum and moonlight.

For Architecture in Helsinki, however, these laid-back songs are merely breaks, and playtime is the order of the day. Their live performances see them swapping instruments mid-song and dashing frantically around the stage as if their boundless creativity could not be contained, or perhaps as if something brighter and shinier caught their eye. ‘In Case We Die’ reminds me of a kid on Christmas morning ripping the cellophane off one toy before having got the batteries in another, or, in words culled from Dave Eggers’ autobiography: ‘…a music video, a game show on Nickelodeon – lots of quick cuts, crazy camera angles, fun, fun, fun! It’s a campaign of distraction… fireworks, funny dances, magic tricks. Whassat? Lookie there! Where’d it go?’


Tony Kelleher
26.01.2006


Rating: 6.5/10



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