If You're Feeling Sinister [Import] [Limited Edition]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Japanese reissue of the Scottish indie act's 1996 album, packaged in a limited edition miniature LP sleeve. EMI. 2003.

Tracks:

The Stars Of Track And Field
Seeing Other People
Me And The Major
Like Dylan In The Movies
The Fox In The Snow
Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying
If You're Feeling Sinister
Mayfly
The Boy Done Wrong Again
Judy And The Dream Of Horses

Amazon.com

There are several schools of thought about Syd Barrett, the early leader of Pink Floyd. Some think he was a genius songwriter, even when he was utterly whacked out. Others think he was just a druggie tosspot (those people are wrong). If you subscribe to the former school, you need to hear Belle and Sebastian, who seem to inhabit a musical universe close to Syd's. Songs seem to fly off the cuff, as attractive as a summer day when you were 16. We're not talking self-conscious strangeness here, but just natural, organic weirdness with melodies that make these songs work. --Chris Nickson

Album Description

Whimsy and preciousness is an integral part of 'If You're Feeling Sinister', along with clever wit and gentle, intricate arrangements - a wonderful blend of the Smiths and Simon & Garfunkel, to be reductive. A Matador Records release.

Customer Reviews:

Don't let this be your first Belle and Sebastion.......2007-05-22

I gave this only 3 stars not because it's not good but because it doesn't come close to some of their better albums. If your a big fan go ahead and get this CD but otherwise pass and get a better Belle and Sebastian album.

"It Only Happens Once A Lifetime...".......2007-04-29

So do you want talk of the music first or do you want The Theory?

Music? Okay.

It starts innocently enough, quietly enough. 'The Stars Of Track And Field' building softly to its confident acoustic climax - hints of pop purity amidst its (meaningful) meandering. There is nothing obvious about this but its beauty is - like all this - just that.

'Seeing Other People' is more immediate and kind of sums up why I love this album, this band. Lyrically it's very clever, about growing up ("We lay on the bed there/Kissing just for practice/Could we please be objective?/Cause the other boys are queueing up behind us...") and the stories we tell ourselves ("A hand over my mouth/A hand over the window/Well, if I remain passive and you just want to cuddle/Then we should be okay and won't get in a muddle/Cause we're seeing other people/At least that's what we say we are doing...")but I love this bittersweet gender blurring and then it's just plain funny ("You're going to have to change/Or you're going to have to go with girls/You might be better off/At least they know what they are doing..." - I love that pay-off line). There's nothing flash about the song though and musically it just draws you in. Before you know it you're hooked.

Candidates for best song on the album flow thick and fast.

'Like Dylan In The Movies' not only has a great title but just rolls along beautifully, so sure of itself, so sure of all of this. This was the first song I really adored on this album but now it's joined by 'The Fox In The Snow' (the repeated refrain of "What do they know anyway?/You read it in a book..." just gives me goosebumps)and the music merges with those great lyrics to form this mystical whole. I'm either sat there with tears in my eyes or this massive grin on my face.

It's joined by the self-deprecating glory of 'Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying' ("You could either be successful or you could be us...") and that is then joined by the Nick Drake of 'Mayflower' with its opening "Lovesick on a sunny afternoon..." which kind of nails the mood of much of this ("He had the moves to save the day/But you would love him anyway..."), a kind of celebration of the day to day, of the days as they go past with all the reasons how or why they change us, elate us or just leave us as we think we are.

The best is saved till last though. 'The Boy Done Wrong Again' and 'Judy And The Dream Of Horses' combine to round off this marvellous album in truly dreamy fashion. 'The Boy Done Wrong Again' sounds like a dream itself as it hypnotises ("All that I wanted was to sing the saddest song/And if you would sing along, I will be happy now...") and then the upbeat finale. "Judy wrote the saddest song..." is how it begins - see how everything just fits, how theme leads to theme and all moves to where you are or where you should be or where you want to be. "You dream of horses" is how it ends. In between you have pop perfection.

And then it's over. all too soon. So you have to stop and play it all again. Everything drifting...

And the theory? Sorry, The Theory? Oh,it's something and nothing. Well, compared to the music. Just something about how Belle & Sebastian almost singlehandedly saved indie (as in independent) music at a time when the greatness of Nirvana had inadvertantly ruined it, having ushered in an era where every indie band was being signed by the majors and then spat out after an album when the expected 'units' weren't 'shifted'. Creativity stifled and any idea of independent thought gone, just little things like a band being allowed to develop...whatever. Belle & Sebastian changed all that. A wilful independence, a refusal to acknowledge the game let alone play it...and then the change. Indie. Independent.

But then, come on, you can save your theory, all theories. Nothing much matters next to the majesty of this music. Play it again and play it louder each time. Yes.

"And he remembers Roxy Music in '72" (* * * * 1/2).......2007-02-17

In my review of Belle & Sebastian's CD The Boy With the Arab Strap, I described the 1996 release If You're Feeling Sinister as the "better" album. I think that I was pretty much going along with the conventional wisdom that holds this to be true. At this point, however, I am not sure that I agree with this assessment. I am not now claiming that The Boy With the Arab Strap is better one, just that it is not by any means necessarily the lesser one. So to split the difference, let us say that they are equally good. Interestingly, about as many would disagree with this as would agree with it. I read a review of their 2006 CD The Life Pursuit which claimed that the band never fully capitalized on the momentum they developed with If You're Feeling Sinister. Granted, their 2000 and 2002 albums showed a sharp decline in the quaility of the band's output. However, to discount The Boy With the Arab Strap and 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress as subpar efforts is simply ludicrous.

Anyway, If You're Feeling Sinister was the band's first record to be given wide release, and was therefore the one which introduced the lucky few to the elements that have made Belle & Sebastian the beloved cult band that they have been ever since. Those with only a passing knowledge of Belle & Sebastian might be inclined to associate them with slow and pensive songs. These are indeed an essential part of their reportoire, as demonstrated on this album by "The Stars of Track and Field", "The Fox In the Snow", "The Boy Done Wrong Again", and "Judy and the Dream of Horses". (These titles themselves are indicitive of the whimsy that is also invitably - and rightly - associated with the band.) However, the band ventures just as naturally into uptempo territory on "Seeing Other People", "Me and the Major", the title track, and "Mayfly". This contrast keeps the record from sounding too much like a collection of bedtime stories, even though IYFS is less dynamic than some of their other records.

When I first heard "Me and the Major", I mistook those words as "me and the midget". Thus, I misheard one of the lyrics as "Me and the midget don't see eye to eye". While this was a humorous mistake, it made sense to me that such a lyric would come from Belle & Sebastian, as they are quite keen with their word play and verbal imagery, eg, "She was into S&M and Bible studies". Musically, Belle & Sebastian's sound is based primarily on strings and delicate acoustic guitars, to the almost complete exclusion of electric guitars. This combination is decorated by non-traditional pop instruments such as harmonica, trumpet, and saxaphone. The band uses these to full effect without making the songs sound like exercises in the genres more commonly associated with these instruments. This sound - along with the lyrics - deliberately invoke melancholy. In fact, the last two songs on the album refer to someone writing or wanting to write "the saddest song". And as lead singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch sings on "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying", "I could kill you sure/But I can only make you cry with these words".

But still, as I said in my review of The Boy With the Arab Strap, Belle & Sebatian's music is much more life-affirming than it is depressing. Moreover, Stuart Murdoch is not as brooding or woe-is-me as say, Morrissey. Having gotten in B&S in a somewhat backward fashion (I heard Dear Catastrophe Waitress before anything else), I missed the female vocals present on later albums but absent from IYFS. This does not make it a lesser album, but rather, it helps keep other releases from sounding too much like it. Thus, IYFS was a fine springboard for future ideas from Belle & Sebastian, and it is every bit as good as - but not better than - anything the group has ever recorded.

Awesome stuff.......2006-11-05

Belle and Sebastian are a very recent discovery of mine, but I am severely addicted to their music. This album got me started, but I really don't think it's a five star album - but at the same time, it's not as low as a four star, so I had to round up. There are better albums out there, sure, even some by B&S... but this one is fantastic nonetheless. I highly recommend it.

Damn, Where's the minister.......2006-07-29

Belle and Sebastian's "If You're Feeling Sinister" is an album of extroardinary folk songs that becomes an extraordinary experience when you listen through your heart. The lyrics are a thoughtful ballad of pain, hate and tyranny. Each song will drive you wild with the soft yet brilliant guitar strum and a dark and cold voice that is somewhat uplifting. Stuart Murdoch would be the ringleader of this circus and I like it... This album was a part of what I stood for in the 90's and still is listenable today because of the jagged edges that made me simultaneously happy on each listen.

Average customer rating:

If You're Feeling Sinister
Belle & Sebastian
Manufacturer: Toshiba EMI Japan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Twee Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Chamber Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Alternative Folk | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Alternative Rock | Imports | Stores | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000896NM
Release Date: 2004-04-27

Tracks:

Stars of Track and Field
Seeing Other People
Me and the Major
Like Dylan in the Movies
Fox in the Snow
Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying
If You're Feeling Sinister
Mayfly
Boy Done Wrong Again
Judy and the Dream of Horses

Album Description

Japanese reissue of the Scottish indie act's 1996 album, packaged in a limited edition miniature LP sleeve. EMI. 2003.

Album Details

Japanese Limited Edition in an LP-STYLE Slipcase.

Average customer rating:

Don't let this be your first Belle and Sebastion
"It Only Happens Once A Lifetime..."
"And he remembers Roxy Music in '72" (* * * * 1/2)
Awesome stuff
Damn, Where's the minister

If You're Feeling Sinister

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Twee Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Chamber Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Dear Catastrophe Waitress
The Crane Wife
The Soft Bulletin
Loveless
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

ASIN: B000002ULS

Amazon.com

Album Description

Customer Reviews:

Don't let this be your first Belle and Sebastion.......2007-05-22

"It Only Happens Once A Lifetime...".......2007-04-29

"And he remembers Roxy Music in '72" (* * * * 1/2).......2007-02-17

Awesome stuff.......2006-11-05

Damn, Where's the minister.......2006-07-29

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