I Could Be Dreaming: the Belle and Sebastian song-by-song, album-by-album thread

There's also a bonus track on the Japan compilation called "Sometimes" that's on Youtube.

 

Territory specific bonus tracks are a pet hate of mine.

 

Me too.

 

Yes, I agree. While I know the argument about Japanese domestic CDs being so expensive that bonus tracks are used as an incentive for people to buy domestic instead of cheaper imports, surely rather than bypassing the issue this way it would be better to use consumer behaviour as a way of reducing Japanese domestic prices.

 

It's only acceptable if they sing it in Japanese, and have a full tea ceremony before recording.

 

2013: 2.2

Rock Your Baby: 4

Olympic Village 6 AM: 3.375

 

That must get sticky.

 

Today's song is "Sweet Dew Lee", credited to Belle and Sebastian; produced by Belle & Sebastian, Stuart Evans and Emily MacLaren at Green Door studio in Glasgow. Mixed by Stuart Evans and Emily MacLaren. Lead vocals are by Stevie Jackson and Stuart Murdoch.

Lyric.

Here's a good article about these releases from 2018.

 

He's a Mancunian. Pies are a North West England speciality. He copes.

 

Quite a brave move to start with a 6 minute long Stevie fronted track. Not entirely sure it works, though it follows on sound wise from the previous album. 3.

 

Well, this is more like it. Decent production, electronics that enhance the song rather than swamping it. But, on the downside, it goes on a little too long. I'd like to hear a four minute edit. 3.25/5

 

Not all the way through. THough I must admit it made me smile to hear his as the first voice we hear on the record, as I've always had a soft spot for his vocals.

This is a near masterpiece, my favourite B & S since The Life Pursuit. The length is fine, there's lots of stuff going on. 5/5

 

This is certainly the best Stevie track since, god, maybe Seymour Stein. Of course it’s a duet. Melody recalls “Surprise Surprise” by John Lennon. But the song is better than that.

4/5

 

The opening is pretty awful and my finger hovered over the skip button, but once the extra elements kick in it's rather good. I particularly like Staurt's first vocal - 4/5.

 

I should clarify: I mean it's my favourite song since my favourite track on that album ("Act of the Apostle 1") not the entire album.

 

Collated ratings for Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

1. Nobody's Empire 4.4444
2. Allie 4.1429
3. The Party Line 3.4222
4. The Power of Three 3.6889
5. Cat with the Cream 3.8889
6. Enter Sylvia Plath 3.5
7. The Everlasting Muse 3.65
8. Perfect Couples 3.52
9. Ever Had a Little Faith 3.73
10. Play For Today 4
11. The Book of You 3.375
12. Today (This Armie's For Peace 3.9375

Girls In Peacetime Want to Dance 3.65
Average by song: 3.7799

• Born To Act 3.49
• Two Birds 2.5
• Piggy in the Middle 2.9778
• A Politician's Silence 3.8333
• 2013: 2.2
• Rock Your Baby 4
• Olympic Village 6AM 3.375

 

I suppose the ultimate band for this would be Kraftwerk. After three instrumental albums their fourth, Autobahn (sung in German), gave them an unexpected international hit single. The following album had lyrics in German and English; but after that they routinely issued an English language and a German language edition. One album, Trans-Europe Express, even got a French edition, which was actually the English one with one song in French. They also did this for the ComputerWorld album in Japan - one song in Japanese.

Made it very hard to keep up . . .

 

Nice. This will be my first time going trough this album.
I didn't buy the three EPs gimmick at the time, and i still don't. I don't like the title of the album or the cover art. So I'm coming in a bit on a negative bias.

Sweet Dew Lee
Why is this over six minutes?
Stevie sounds like singing from his nose.
Song structure sounds loose and unfinished.

1/5

 

Sweet Dew Lee 4/5
I don't like the verse very much but I adore the chorus.
as a Swedish pop group once called their Best Of collection: don't bore us, get to the chorus

 

of course the verse is needed for the chorus to be so fantastic

and for the record: it is Stevie's best song since Jonathan David, since that is still his (and B&S's) best song

 

Sweet Dew Lee: 2.5/5

If my memory is correct when I saw Belle and Sebastian in my home town in Australia in 2018 they played this song 6th in the set...much to the puzzlement of all in attendance. They joked that everyone should remain calm they'll be back to regular programming soon. Something like that. Nobody really knew the song but we gave a rousing round of applause for the effort. I made a point to check it out later to see if it was as inconsequential as I remembered. Found a live performance of it on youtube...and ho hum. Not one of their best.

It's alright. You can see an idea or two in there but as a complete song it's not really kicking too many goals.

 

Sweet Dew Lee: 3

This song puzzles me a lot. I really don't know what to make of it. It's as if it was opaque; I can't see into it, I can get the feeling of the tune, I find it's a weird phrase for a title and everytime it comes back in the chorus it bothers me, the outro is too long... At the same time I cannot give it 2 because I feel it's not such a bad song, and it may just be me who don't get it.

 

Our votes for "Sweet Dew Lee"

1-1
2-0
3-3
4-3
5-1
Average: 3.3125

 

Today's song is "We Were Beautiful", credited to Belle and SEbastian and produced by Belle and SEbastian and Brian McNeill; engineered and mixed by Brian McNeill.

Lyric.

Dave McGowan: pedal steel guitar, bass
Robert Henderson: trumpet
Brian McNeill: drum programming, keyboards

 

This is more like it, an excellent track. Though I do recall not really rating it when I first heard it, it has definitely grown on me. 4.5\5