B is for Belle and Sebastian

By Lizzi

elle and Sebastian are a UK band named after a French childrens cartoon. Their music is usually multi- instrumental with decent progressions and harmonies, great lyrics, soft strained, lispy vocals. Good compositions all around. But they are a band that you definitely need to give a few good concerted efforts at to enjoy. But once you do, you'll get their songs, and especially their sweet lyrics, stuck in your head. Some of my favorite lines?

• "When will you realize, it doesn't pay to be smarter than teacher, smarter than most boys, so shut your mouth" —"Lord Anthony," Dear Catastrophe Waitress (This line was my main source of motivation to go briefly into education, just so that I could have a classroom with a laserjet printed banner in the front of class with this lyric printed on it... I still get persuaded from time to time...)
• "Sukie was a kid, she liked to hang out in the art school. She never enrolled, but she wiped the floor with all the assholes" —"Sukie in the Graveyard," The Life Pursuit
• "Judy I was just trying to find and keep the dream of horses... The best looking boys are taken, the best looking girls are staying inside. So Judy where does that leave you? Walking the street from morning till night, with a star upon your shoulder lighting up the path that you walk..." —"Judy and the Dream of Horses," Boy with the Arab Strap

I was first exposed to Belle and Sebastian when my husband (and at the time, "just a friend") Greg came over to visit me after I got my wisdom teeth out. He brought me a gerbera daisy and a mix CD he named "Teeth are Stupid." Alot of the bands he included on that cd are now some of my favorite bands, even though at first I thought that I had gotten myself entangled with someone who had no musical sensibilities whatsoever. (Which is still partly true. Greg's a devout lyric person. He doesn't really care so much about anything else, besides a good bass line.)

My suggestion to get started is to listen to "Judy and the Dream of Horses," "If She Wants Me," "Cover's Blown," and "Wrapped up in Books." These were my first favorites. But now? There seriously isn't one song that I don't love to listen to. The best part about Belle and Sebastian is that their music is so soft and... nice sounding, even though the songs are sometimes about really awful and depressing things. I love it.