Scottish dream pop collective BELLE AND SEBASTIAN released their
debut LP, called TIGERMILK, on 6 June 1996, today 30 years ago.
It came out through a small Scottish label, ‘Electric Honey‘, on a limited release of
just 1,000 copies. It sold out quickly, but it took 3 years to re-release it properly
and sell over 120.000 units.
The album is named after an instrumental that did not end up on the record.
All of the songs were written by Stuart Murdoch between 1993 and 1996, and
originally performed solo on the Glasgow open mic circuit.
The LP’s cover photograph was taken by Murdoch and features his girlfriend Joanne Kenney, who also appeared on the cover of the Dog On Wheels EP.
Pitchfork wrote: “Tigermilk is proof that pop can foster a community
without catering to elitism or attempting to be one-size-fits-all.”
TUTV: Start of a long, successful career for
the melancholic and romantic pop masters.
The band just shared a vintage brisk pop tune that somehow didn’t
end up on the album. It’s called WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, SON? ,
Stuart Murdoch (singer/songwriter): “The song is about my youth, and the funny hole
I fell into in my late teens. I was failing at my university course, failing in almost everything I tried around then. I was obsessed with the music of the time, I used to hang so much on the lyrics and message and feeling of certain bands of the 80s era – it probably wasn’t healthy.
So although the theme of this song is a little accusatory, the fault is with the beholder.
I could have switched off at any time. Instead I let the singers become my penpals and my deities. The song tries to address what happens when the pop stars grow up, and change, and go a different way, and seem to betray the stance they held when you loved them the most.”
Scottish dream pop tunesmiths BELLE AND SEBASTIAN teased, out of the blue,
a new album – their 12th – with a single a couple of days ago (see below). The LP
is namedLATE DEVELOPERS and landed yesterday.
Press info: “Arriving almost back-to-back with their acclaimed 2022 album A Bit of
Previous, Belle and Sebastian return with Late Developers a surprise new album arriving
Jan 13th. Recorded during the sessions for A Bit of Previous, the new album is a full-hearted embrace of the band’s brightest tendencies that is not only fresh and immediate but possessing of the groups tuneful ability to be there for you with the perfect word or melody for the moment.”
Pitchfork: “On the quick follow-up to last year’s A Bit of Previous, the Glasgow indie-pop
band’s on-the-fly energy and head-in-the-clouds musings collide in memorable and surprising ways.Late Developers, announced less than a week before its release, underlines Belle and Sebastian’s uncanny ability to keep coming out on top.” Score: 7.5/10.
(photo by Turn Up The Volume)
TUTV: Tune after after tune after tune. Very familiar but most of the time very
irresistible too (Will I Tell You A Secret / The Evening Star / I Don’t Know What You See
In Me / Do You Follow / When The Cinycs Stare Back From The Wall). Even after all these
years maestro Stuart Murdoch‘s pop songwriting expertise seems to be inexhaustible. Hats off. 8/10.
Scottish dream pop expertsBELLE AND SEBASTIAN released their 11th LP A BIT OF PREVIOUS last May. They’ll make their American fans in April/May
2023 happy when they fly to the USA for a series of concerts.
Rough Trade (label): “A classic Belle and Sebastian album preoccupied
with songs and melodies that won’t leave your head and lyrics that can make
you smile and ponder and sometimes be melancholic. The result is one the most
diverse, hands-on and thrilling entries in the bands catalogue, self-produced
and recorded.”
Murdoch: “The song is about a young person experimenting in being a human again after a forced hiatus. The person is weighing up whether or not it’s worth the mess! Still, you dip your toe in and it becomes delicious, and you get too much of it. Between trouble and nothing, we still choose the trouble.”
Vintage B & S. Swinging tune, upbeat pop-ular melody,
majestic chorus, a bit previous, compelling story.
Scottish popsmiths BELLE & SEBASTIAN just launched brand new single ‘SISTER BUDDHA‘. A highly catchy and blissful vintage B & S earworm that gets under your skin and in your bloodstream instantly. Here’s the accompanying video clip directed by band leader Stuart Murdoch himself …
