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

Get this track off my album.

 

Oh dear, another spoken word piece. Fortunately the rest of side two is much better... 1.5/5

 

A Spacebody Dream 1/5

 

I love " Spaceboy Dream" -- in this version. The Looper B-side is a bit dull in comparison. The story is entertaining enough, but really the star here is the backing track, I think it's brilliant. Very evocative and picturesque.

Clearly a completely different vision than Murdoch's; it's not even trying for that, but I like it very, very very much. I do think that Stuart D was onto something and this is far, far, far more successful than "A Century of Elvis", perhaps because, in comparison that was pretty lazily done, just adding a spoken word piece to the backing track of a different song. This was however labored over and again, I may be alone, but I think it's brilliant.

4.5/5

 

Fleetwood Mac, The Monkees, The Police, Simon and Garfunkel. Good company for Belle and Sebastian to be in, but sadly for the most dubious distinction.

Yes, it's the old "that spoken word track is the worst thing on the album" honour.

When The Boy with the Arab Strap came out, I thought the variety was one of the things that made it. It's very much an album that's greater than the sum of its parts: a four star album populated a couple of less than four star songs.

But I liked the fact that Isobel and Stevie had lead vocals and - I have to be honest - I'd no real issue with A Spaceboy Dream.

The problem is that as the years go on - and, to be blunt, this really began with Stuart David's departure - his spoken word songs feel completely out of place. It's like having an old group photo with someone who - very soon afterwards - was no longer part of the gang. It might be nice as a freeze frame of the era, but there's possibly a slight regret that they were included in the photo in the first place.

While A Century of Elvis was on an EP, where it could perhaps be excused as an experiment, including Spaceboy Dream on The Boy with the Arab Strap now seems like an extremely ill-judged move.

From a narrative point of view, it suffers the same problem as A Century of Elvis in that it seems to just fizzle out. Sure, that might be typical of dreams where there is no logical conclusion, but the story goes nowhere before descending into incongruous, slightly Lalo Schifrinesque space jazz.

The one saving grace is that its finale leads brilliantly into the start of Dirty Dream Number Two. It's clever sequencing, but one is also reminded of the old observation about Within You, Without You being strategically placed at the start of side two of Sgt. Pepper: putting the polarising track at the start of your LP side makes it easy to skip.

2/5

 

A space to dream...

I don't particularly mind these spoken word interludes .. hard to judge them as songs , more mood pieces on an album ...2/5

 

Space Boy Dream 5/5

Beautiful. A story that perfectly expresses childhood insecurites. Life is full of terrifying unknowns, but you hope everything will be fine when your dad gets there.

Musically brilliant too, consisting of 3 sections, the first, an understated krautrock inspired rhythmic groove, with punctuations from the ultra tight string section.

The middle short section being an Augustus Pablo dub influenced bridge, that introduces the final tom-tom driven lounge jazz finale, with muted trumpet and Hammond organ. A tour of the physical and musical universe, and all packed into 3 minutes and 2 seconds!

 

Another good non-Murdoch song that makes this such a varied and lively album. Like the monologue more than the Elvis one. The jazzy exotica flute sounds that end the song lead in nicely to the similarly retro sounds of the succeeding number. I am in no position to complain about the insults this song is garnering as in a couple of albums' time it'll be me who'll be bringing all the negativity to the party
4.

 

Don't worry comrade, you won't be alone.

 

Spaceboy Dream is better than Elvis. It's better than the Looper version. It definitely suffers from not being as good as a Stuart M song though. But it's a rather lively little number. The spoken word part doesn't particularly annoy me. I fine it easier to not pay attention to it than Elvis? And yes, it brilliantly leads up to Dirty Dream (although I'm not sure if that's a good reason to be a plus for a song?). 3.5/5.

 

How do you make 3 minutes feel like 10 minutes ? Listen to a spoken word track.
Need a cure for insomnia ? Listen to a spoken word track.

At least "A Century Of Elvis" had a good melody to listen to behind the words and I gave that 2/5, but I don't like any of the different musical variations here at all, so "A Spaceboy Dream" has to be 1/5

 

Spaceboy Dream: 2/5

Everything's been said already.

 

Our votes for "Spaceboy Dream"
1-2
2-4
3-0
4-2
5-2
Average: 2.65

 

Today's song is "Dirty Dream Number Two", written mainly by Stuart Murdoch and credited to Belle and SEbastian; produced by Tony Doogan. Lead vocals are by Stuart Murdoch and Isobel Campbell.

Spotify: Dirty Dream 2
Lyric.

"Dirty Dream Number Two" features the following string section: Claire Campbell, David D MacKay, Eilidh Campbell, Euan Forrester, Gail Anderson, Sarah Wilson.

Live versions of the song have been released:

• The BBC Sessions, 2008, recorded in Belfast on December 21st, 2001; releae
• Live 2015, released and recorded on May 22nd 2015.

 

Live in Belfast, 2001

 

A very strong track. It’s been overshadowed by what comes next but taken on its own, it’s great.

 

Dirty dream 2..

Great track, nice northern soul feel, easy 5/5

 

One of my top 5 B&S songs of all time.
5/5.

 

I love it: the marching, jubilant rhythm of it and way the lush, springy strings and trumpet make it sound like this great summertime party in some leafy metropolis; but also love the way the melody changes from jubilance to sort of aching search; and the way it's all wed perfectly to these lyrics about unrequited -- or at least not-yet-requited -- love.

This little bit:

In a town so small there’s no escaping you
In a town so small there’s no escape from view
In a town so small there’s nothing left to do

means so much to me, as a conspicuous person living in a small town, I really relate to it. Isobel's spoken word vocal adds even a dash more magic to this masterpiece drenched in joy, sadness, worry and beauty.

5/5

 

The Motown one. This was really the big hit on the album for me. 5/5

 

And the album is back on track! 5/5

 

Never mind the superb Tony Hatch/Mike Hurst style arrangement, what about those fantastic, simple but effective backing vocals from Isobel and Sarah?
5/5

 

Dirty Dream 5 /5

For how long can they keep up this stonking track after track consistent brilliance?

Be patient. Not too long now.

 

Easy 5/5 for Dirty Dream. I'm glad everyone's in agreement. Could have/should have been a big hit single. The strings.

 

I’m intrigued to see your comments on the forthcoming tracks!