815. Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk (1996)


















Track Listing

1. State I Am In
2. Expectations
3. She's Losing It
4. You're Just A Baby
5. Electronic Renaissance
6. I Could Be Dreaming
7. We Rule The School
8. My Wandering Days Are Over
9. I Don't Love Anyone
10. Mary Jo


Review

So this album came out in 1996, but no one really heard it until 1999, as the vinyl was limited to 1000. The few that got it must have loved it, now if you want an original pressing you will have to fork out around 400 squid. Fortunately in 1999 they reissued it as a vinyl, and what a wonderful album it is.

I was never a huge fan of Belle and Sebastian, first, their fans are the kind of cultish hipsters that make me break out in hives, secondly, they have always seemed to be to be slightly boring. In this album, they are anything but, you can perfectly see that they are still trying to find their footing and to discover what their future sound will be. This actually makes for a more exciting album, the styles of the tracks are quite distinctive from each other, even having an electronic track!

The album is really lovely thorughout, however, beautiful songs and lyrics beautifully sung and expertly presented. This is an album which makes it very hard for you not to love it. The tweeness of it manages not to be irritating and the whole thing is a joy. I really loved it.

Track Highlights

1. Expectations
2. Mary Jo
3. I Could Be Dreaming
4. Electronic Renaissance

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album is named after a song that didn't end up making the cut – an instrumental that was later performed numerous times on Belle & Sebastian's early tours. All of the songs on the album were written by Stuart Murdoch between 1993 and 1996, and originally performed solo on the Glasgow open mic circuit. Though he performs on the album, trumpet player Mick Cooke was not yet an official member of the band.

Expectations: