Belle and Sebastian

City of Origin: Glasgow, Scotland

Period of Activity: 1990s-present

Members: Richard Colburn, Chris Geddes, Stevie Jackson, Bobby Kildea, Sarah Martin, Dave McGowan, Stuart Murdoch, Isobel Campbell (former), Mick Cooke (former), Stuart David (former)

Related Artists: The Gentle Waves, God Help the Girl, Looper

Discography:

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Belle and Sebastian are one of the biggest names in all of indiepop (as you can see from the size of their discography above). Obviously, in the nearly 30 years they've been performing, they've covered a lot of stylistic ground, and there's a lot of ways to get into their discography. But generally, you can divide their work into pre- and post-Storytelling.

The reverence in which Belle and Sebastian is held by many rests on the strength of their pre-Storytelling work, including some of the prettiest songs in all of indiepop. These four albums (and a few EPs included in Push Barman to Open Old Wounds all tend to have this delicate quality where they feel like they're about to break if you listen to them too hard (if you've ever heard Love's Forever Changes, it's sort of similar to them). It took me a bit of time to get into their music because If You're Feeling Sinister (typically considered their best album) felt to me like the band was about to fall asleep on their feet. With time (and especially after listening to Tigermilk), I came to realize that the albums were reflecting Stuart Murdoch's frame of mind while dealing with ME/CFS. Most fans of the band will agree that their best work came during this era, but their later work may be better for someone seeking something more immediate.

After the release of Storytelling, the band got a bit more upbeat and a bit less delicate. Dear Catastrophe Waitress, The Life Pursuit, and Write About Love feel like attempts at a more straightforward power poppy form of indiepop, and they succeeded at it as well. They've still got the horns and the violin, but now everything sounds bigger and catchier. Actually, "Another Sunny Day" (the first song on The Life Pursuit) was the thing that kept me from giving up on the band while I was trying to get what everyone else hears from them. I'm not nearly as familiar with their work from Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance onward, but my understanding is that they got a bit synthpoppier in that time. I can tell you that the lead single of that album, "Nobody's Empire", is one of my all-time favorite songs in their discography, even if the rest of the album didn't work quite as well for me.