Electronic Renaissance - Belle and Sebastian
From one great Scottish band to another - and one very Scottish album to another.
Released in 1996 when Bell and Sebastian were relative nobodies as the first album release on the Indy Electric Honey label with an original limited vinyl run of only 1,000 copies, the album "Tigermilk" is a classic that says "we've arrived". A clever move - it soon sold out making it a much sought after classic with copies fetching high prices before its re-release in 1999.
The album is a series of musical statements by lead singer and songwriter Stuart Murdoch about the lives of twenty somethings in nineties Glasgow, presented in styles varying from neo-folk to rock to disco. Always self aware, yet without failing to be objective, the album is a record of a state of mind, time and place.
Here it's not enough for Murdoch to write a rave song, he is watching himself all the way, novelising himself in poetry and prose:
".....take a step to the discotheque, and people go outside where there’s someone watching cars go by and the city tall with steeples..... hand in hand with the electronic renaissance is the way to go you’re learning, soon you will do the things you wanted since you were wearing glitter badges if you dance for much very longer you’ll be known as the boy who’s always dancing if you work for much very longer you’ll be known as the boy who’s always working..... ....monochrome in the 1990’s you go disco and I’ll go funkadelic man is the way to go so drop a pill and then say hello."
No party, no comment.