Belle and Sebastian
Glasgow's Reigning Indie Rulers By Laura LeeboveMuch-adored indie pop band from Glasgow, Scotland, best known for their sweetly romantic tunes and intelligent, often whimsical lyrics.
Belle & Sebastian are an indie pop band from Glasgow, Scotland, best known for their romantic orchestrations and frontman Stuart Murdoch's intelligent, sometimes whimsical, but often melancholy lyrics. Murdoch began writing songs during a seven-year bout with chronic fatigue syndrome in the '80s, forming the group in 1996 with Stuart David, who departed in 2000 to concentrate on his own project Looper. Belle & Sebastian's early recordings, including If You're Feeling Sinister (perhaps their most acclaimed album), were dreamy, lo-fi, and featured little production gloss. (The group's singles and EPs from this era were reissued as the two-disc compilation Push Barman To Open Old Wounds in 2005.) Several events inaugurated a change in musical direction around 2002. Vocalist/cellist Isobel Campbell -- who'd had a relationship with Murdoch during her tenure in the band -- left Belle & Sebastian in the middle of a tour to pursue a solo career. A shift from the tiny Jeepster label to the more established Rough Trade, along with the band's first-time use of an outside producer, resulted in the sharper, radio- and dancefloor-friendly Dear Catastrophe Waitress. The follow-up The Life Pursuit offered an equally sunny sound with somewhat cheerier lyrics to match.
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