Belle And Sebastian
Tigermilk

THE REVIEW

Symphonies for Broken Hearts.

There have been several moments in my life when I had an extreme need for Belle & Sebastian… probably the root is the same that led a "forgotten" generation of the '80s to listen to the Smiths and Morrissey's lyrics, or that so-called "dark" generation to listen to the Cure and Joy Division.
But for many years, the void left by the Smiths, at least from a lyrical impact standpoint, seemed insurmountable: until this fantastic Scottish band arrived. The music of Belle & Sebastian should be experienced as a parenthesis beyond reality and beyond one's own memory, and never as in this case is it necessary to underline the inseparable pair between melody and singing, which in a certain sense is parallel or proportional to the dualism of ethics/aesthetics. These two elements blend together, become one, and almost transform into a standalone instrument that leads the listener to completely detach from their present. B & S evoke images, colors, people, and situations that you may have experienced or from which your reality could not be more distant... figures of serenity and nostalgia that with the music become increasingly abstract, almost as if Stuart Murdoch were there to make them impalpable... as if he were singing in your room, sitting beside you. At least that's the sensation I feel while listening to tracks like "The State I Am In," the band's first flagship song, "My Wandering Days Are Over," and many, too many others.
Ed O'Brien of Radiohead said that as a kid, he listened to the Smiths because listening to them made it seem like Morrissey was speaking directly to him, a true catharsis: it's more or less in the same way that for many periods Belle & Sebastian's records have worked as a therapeutic method for my mood.
I'm almost glad that the band's latest works from Dundee have perhaps been less poetic and memorable: this way, that magnificent trilogy inaugurated in 1996 by this phenomenal "Tigermilk" I still feel a bit more mine, sharing it with an invisible (but surely existing) community of incurable broken hearts. Although many suggest the next two albums (surely more polished and financed), for me, the real masterpiece of the group is this debut, which is often unjustly overlooked. Made with a very low budget (a scholarship), with promotional momentum equal to zero, "Tigermilk" sublimely captures what the Great Belle & Sebastian truly were, those destined to enter pop history.

This album, completely self-produced, would remain hidden for years (in Italy it would be released only in 1999 - three years after its release in the UK - following the surprising success of "The Boy With The Arab Strap") but contains some of the greatest classics of this group whose name is a tribute to the famous novel by Cecilie D'Aubry.
Immersed in a dreamlike atmosphere, it thrives on standalone strokes of genius like the aforementioned "The State I Am In," the poignant "We Rule The School," the '60s garage of "You're Just A Baby," and the lo-fi electropop of "Electronic Renaissance" which stuns compared to the sound of other tracks, which retraces a bit of Donovan (for Murdoch's singing and the acoustic introspections) and a bit of Nick Drake (for the overall mood of the album, which nevertheless opens to sunny and bright tracks like "She's Losing It" very much in the vein of Ray Davies).
The references are numerous, the band's loves (a total of 7 members, among which the beautiful and ethereal Isobel Campbell and the shadowy Stevie Jackson stand out) countless, yet perfectly amalgamated into a single atmosphere: Bob Dylan, Morricone, indeed the Smiths, Neil Young, the Velvet Underground, and many others.
The most intense moment is "My Wandering Days Are Over" where the arrangement evolves, from simple (just voice and guitar) to increasingly complex and sophisticated: the lyrics of the songs perfectly adapt to this particular "Wall Of Sound," delicately addressing sometimes surprisingly themes such as repressed homosexuality and urban solitude.

A small, and unforgettable, jewel of the past decade.