Belle & Sebastian: The Boy With the Arab Strap (25th anniversary, blue vinyl) [MATADOR]

Why you'll love it

This 25th anniversary pressing comes on limited blue vinyl in a blue-tinted gatefold jacket with a bonus art print. NME later placed the title track at No. 130 on its list of the 150 best tracks of the previous 15 years, and the album sold 200,000 copies through 2006.

This edition

• 25th anniversary edition
• Blue vinyl
• Limited edition
• Gatefold jacket
• Art print included

About the album

Most bands hurry after a breakthrough. Belle & Sebastian, fresh from If You're Feeling Sinister, put out a trio of EPs instead, played America for the first time at the CMJ Festival, then spent several months on their third album, a positively leisurely pace for a Glasgow group that had made its first two records in a matter of days.

The extra time let everyone in. Stevie Jackson sings lead on "Seymour Stein" and "Chickfactor," Isobel Campbell takes "Is It Wicked Not to Care?" and duets with Stuart Murdoch on "Sleep the Clock Around" (bagpipes courtesy of Ian MacKay), and Stuart David delivers a spoken word turn on "A Space Boy Dream." Mick Cooke's trumpet and Sarah Martin's violin fill out arrangements that Rolling Stone heard as "brilliant Spector-sound sunsets," while "Dirty Dream Number Two" and "The Rollercoaster Ride" show how far Murdoch's chamber pop had grown.

The cover is Murdoch's own photo of keyboardist Chris Geddes, taken one afternoon by the River Ayr. The title borrows the name of fellow Scots Arab Strap, who had toured with them, and Aidan Moffat's considered verdict was "They have a sense of humour," which is about as warm a review as one Scottish band ever gives another.

Also at Kops: more Belle & Sebastian on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Matador / Jeepster (cat# OLE 311LP), a reissue of the 1998 album.