Belle and Sebastian released their first two albums in 1996: Tigermilk, recorded over three days, and If You're Feeling Sinister, recorded in a week, at the peak of the chamber pop movement. At first, some critics in Britain's music weeklies tied the band into the subgenre, yet the group was too pretty, too delicate, to bear that label. Through their first two years of public existence, the band shielded their personalities, submitting publicity photos featuring a girl, who was a friend of the band and reluctantly posing for photo shoots. Furthermore, they performed in odd venues, playing not only the standard coffeehouses and cafes, but also homes, church halls, and libraries.
Prior to the formation of Belle and Sebastian, Murdoch suffered from a protracted battle with chronic fatigue syndrome, which forced him to drop out of school and spend seven years living in his parents' home crippled by his condition.Whilst in his parents home, Murdoch wrote a short story about a boy named Sebastian and a girl named Isabelle based on the names from Madame Cecile Aubery's children's book Belle et Sebastian. On New Year's Day 1996, Stuart attended a party at which he met a young singer and cellist named Isobel Campbell. In a letter to his brother Fraser, Murdoch explained how he was making a single for Stow college at the end of February. Murdoch opted to use the name Belle&Sebastian for the project because it was occupying him at the time. Murdoch took to songwriting as an escapism from the four walls surrounding him in his room and eventually recorded demos with bassist Stuart David whom he met at a government training programme called Beatbox. Murdoch quickly met a series of other musicians through social and musical circles in his hometown Glasgow and they agreed to help with the Stow project. The members he found for this initial lineup were Stevie Jackson (guitar), Mick Cooke (trumpet), Chris Geddes (keyboards), Stuart David (bass), Richard Colburn (drums), and Isobel Campbell (cello). The Stow College record was to be issued by Electric Honey, but it turned into a full album. The course instructor Alan Rankine determined that Murdoch had enough good material to record a full LP and could do so if they could get it all done in three days, studio time allotted for the single. Murdoch and his musicians rose to the challenge and recorded ten tracks putting the songs in order as they would appear on the record and mostly completing them in just a few takes.
In May of 1996, Belle and Sebastian self-released their debut album, Tigermilk, on Electric Honey Records. Only 1,000 copies of the album, which was only pressed on vinyl, were released, but it unexpectedly became a sensation, earning terrific word of mouth throughout the UK. As a result, the band became slightly more than a school project — it became an actual band. If You're Feeling Sinister, released on the independent Jeepster label, followed in November of 1996. By the time the album was released in America on the EMI subsidiary The Enclave, it had earned considerable critical acclaim in the U.K. — not only from music weeklies, but from newspapers like The Sunday Times and magazines like The Face — and a large cult following; by some accounts, Tigermilk was being sold for as much as 75 pounds. Over the course of 1997, word of mouth continued to grow in America, even as the band pulled out of an American tour because The Enclave went bankrupt and closed.
As the band cult continued to build in 1997, Belle and Sebastian released three EPs — Dog on Wheels (May), Lazy Line Painter Jane (July), and 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light (October). Each subsequent EP placed higher on the indie charts and received great critical acclaim. Later in the year, violinist Sarah Martin became a member of the band. By the end of the year, the group finalized an American deal with Matador Records, issuing The Boy With the Arab Strap in September 1998. The following year saw the eagerly anticipated wide re-release of Tigermilk, the album that started it all. It was the biggest selling album but is unpopular with the group themselves. Following completion of 2000's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, Stuart David left Belle and Sebastian to focus full-time on his solo project, Looper, being replaced by Bobby Kildea of V-Twin. In 2001, the group released two EPs — Jonathan David and I'm Waking Up to Us — and recorded the soundtrack for Todd Solondz's film Storytelling. Just before the soundtrack's release in spring 2002, Belle and Sebastian embarked on a comprehensive tour of the United States and Canada before returning to Europe for the summer festival season. Midway through the tour, Isobel Campbell left the band, citing the usual differences.
Another major change that soon took place was the band leaving Jeepster and Matador to sign with Rough Trade, with their next record, late 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, produced by the inimitable Trevor Horn (who also produced Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Yes, and scores of others). The record spawned the brilliant "Step into My Office, Baby" and "I'm a Cuckoo" singles, the latter of which was the group's biggest U.K. hit, reaching number 14 in early 2004. After a long worldwide tour that found Belle and Sebastian reaching new levels of success, they retired to Scotland and began preparing for the recording of their seventh full length album, The Life Pursuit, released in 2006.
In 2010, they released their eighth full length album, Write About Love.
Official website: www.belleandsebastian.com
Beautiful
Belle and Sebastian Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hearing voices telling me
"Walk away from everything"
But where was I meant to go?
Far away from those I know
To some desolate below
We were in the uber scene
Where the women are oblique
And the boys are paper thin
Ragged beards upon their chin
We were on the outside looking in
Rise above the present day
Rise above the popular melee
I see you the way you are
I see you, the star
We were beautiful before this went down
We were beautiful before the years came
And turned it upside down
We were beautiful before we got wise
We were beautiful with sky and blanket laying low
I am hanging on the line
I'm on duty all the time
I am your Samaritan on call
I could try my best to heal
All the emptiness you feel
In the giving, I will be alive
We were wrapped around our roots
Nothing on except our boots
We were intimate around the waist
We were settling our scores
We were healing over sores
We were living out the pleasure that we lost
We were beautiful before this went down
We were beautiful before the years came
And turned it upside down
We were beautiful for all of time and space
I will tell it to the sun and I will tell it to
If you listen to the night
We can hear the madmen fight
Hear the foxes making out
But the people all immune
Sleeping silent in their rooms
Growing bodies with their sleep
Making plans inside their heads
Making love to shallow friends
Shallow friends
You are not too old to change
Happy only comes after the pain of you and me
We were beautiful before the years came
And turned it upside down
We were beautiful before we got wise
We were beautiful with sky and blanket fading out
We were beautiful before this went down
We were beautiful before the years came
And turned it upside down
We were beautiful for all of time and space
I will tell it to the sun and I will tell it to your face
The lyrics to Belle and Sebastian's song "Beautiful" are imbued with nostalgia, regret, and hope. The song speaks to the idea that life can be both beautiful and painful, and that even when things go wrong, there is still beauty to be found in the world. The verses describe feelings of emptiness and loneliness, but also a sense of connection and the possibility of healing. The chorus repeats the phrase "We were beautiful," emphasizing that there is something inherently excellent about human beings, even when they are struggling.
The first verse begins with the singer feeling lost and overwhelmed, hearing voices telling them to "walk away from everything." But the singer doesn't know where to go, and ends up in a hipster café "on the outside looking in." The second verse describes a past relationship and the intimacy and pleasure they experienced, but also the pain they were healing from. The bridge is a call to rise above the difficulties of life and see the beauty in the world, and the final verse speaks to the idea that people can change and find happiness even in the face of pain.
Overall, "Beautiful" is a poignant and hopeful song that speaks to the human experience of struggle and beauty.
Line by Line Meaning
I was blank as I could be
I was feeling numb and empty
Hearing voices telling me
I was hearing negative thoughts telling me to give up
"Walk away from everything"
The voices were telling me to leave everything behind
But where was I meant to go?
I didn't know where to turn
Far away from those I know
I needed to leave the familiar behind
To some desolate below
To an isolated place with no one else around
We were in the uber scene
We were in an up-and-coming hipster area
Where they grind the coffee bean
Where people obsess over artisan coffee
Where the women are oblique
Where women are aloof and hard to read
And the boys are paper thin
And the men are thin and fragile-looking
Ragged beards upon their chin
Most of the men had unkempt beards
We were on the outside looking in
We didn't feel like we belonged in that scene
Rise above the present day
Don't get bogged down in current problems
Rise above the popular melee
Don't get caught up in popular trends and drama
I see you the way you are
I see you for who you truly are
I see you, the star
I see your potential and greatness
We were beautiful before this went down
We were happy and carefree before things took a turn for the worse
We were beautiful before the years came
We were happy before growing older and wiser
And turned it upside down
And brought chaos and uncertainty
We were beautiful before we got wise
We were happier when we were naive
We were beautiful with sky and blanket laying low
We were happy lying under the stars with a blanket
I am hanging on the line
I am barely holding on and struggling
I'm on duty all the time
I feel like I always have to be responsible for others
I am your Samaritan on call
I am always there to help and be a good friend
I could try my best to heal
I can do my best to help you feel better
All the emptiness you feel
All the sadness and hollowness you're experiencing
In the giving, I will be alive
Helping others makes me feel more alive
We were wrapped around our roots
We were connected to our past and our home
Nothing on except our boots
We were barely dressed, just wearing boots
We were intimate around the waist
We hugged and held each other close
We were settling our scores
We were resolving past conflicts
We were healing over sores
We were recovering from past emotional wounds
We were living out the pleasure that we lost
We were trying to regain the happiness we once had
We were beautiful for all of time and space
Our beauty transcends all boundaries
I will tell it to the sun and I will tell it to
I will share our beauty with the whole world
If you listen to the night
If you pay attention to your surroundings
We can hear the madmen fight
We can hear people arguing and fighting
Hear the foxes making out
We can hear the sounds of nature
But the people all immune
But most people are numb to their surroundings
Sleeping silent in their rooms
Sleeping peacefully in their homes
Growing bodies with their sleep
Recharging and growing while sleeping
Making plans inside their heads
Thinking about future goals and dreams
Making love to shallow friends
Having superficial relationships and interactions
You are not too old to change
It's never too late to make a positive change in your life
Happy only comes after the pain of you and me
We must endure hardships in order to truly appreciate happiness
Lyrics © Spirit Music Group
Written by: Christopher Thomas Geddes, Richard William Colburn, Robert Michael Kildea, Sarah Ann Martin, Stephen Thomas Jackson, Stuart Lee Murdoch
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@cbasbwoyETP
Hell yea.
Shout out Geoff from Scott land for uploading this on my Mac computer in 2006
@greenwave819
I haven't heard this since I loaned this album to a friend! wow 2006 maybe... Hey Ryan how's life