Boy with the Arab Strap – Belle & Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian are another band I was told I would should like. I hate that. I hate being told I should like something.
Anyway, as it happens I should have liked them and I do. Should have because had I been into Belle and Sebastian earlier I might be able to wear a soul patch, ponce about with a beret and call myself a hipster. As it happens I’m way too cool for all that and besides, Belle and Sebastian are so last year and a poor shade on what they used to be like when Stuart was in the band.
See. I know all the hipster talk.
Besides, there is no one in the band called Belle and I’m buggered if I can remember anyone called Sebastian being in it either.
Anyway, this unremarkable album tries to recapture the momentum started by If You’re Feeling Sinister by being extra quirky in sound (it fails) and the sixth form bandishness achieved through Lazy Line Painter Jane in It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career (and failing again). John Peel once said about Belle and Sebastian “Who?”; a sentiment held by many today too. However there are some memorable tracks on this album and you could say that all the albums following this release are shite. That way you too can start to grow that goatee and affect those charity shop tweeds.
Stegzy's Music Project 
Lovely read! Just wrote a movie review on God Help the Girl with songs written by Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian. Talented songwriter : )