Todd Haynes’ 2021 audiovisual documentary looks at the band’s career through archival footage and interviews, tracing their momentous impact on alternative rock.īoth Reed and Murdoch incorporated their love of literature into their music. The New York Times ‘ David Bowman wrote that Velvet Underground were “arguably the most influential American rock band of our time”. The Lou Reed-led, New York art-rockers have been cited by an outrageously long list of reverential artists: Yo La Tengo, Stereolab, Talking Heads, Pavement, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Belle and Sebastian, and numerous others. When discussing left-of-center alternative acts from the ’80s and ’90s, it’s propitious, if predictable, to mention the Velvet Underground. But there was another lodestar for the band that is, at least initially, less apparent. The Liverpudlians were a principal influence on Belle and Sebastian’s music, along with power-pop acts such as Buzzcocks and Big Star, and dream poppers such as Felt. Sinister was released only six months after Tigermilk, prompting comparisons to the Beatles‘ back-to-back Rubber Soul– Revolver releases in December 1965 and August 1966 respectively. He sketches a plethora of characters across the album’s ten songs-snow strayers and Lisa the heartbreaker a cynical Major and a lovesick mayfly gazer. It’s almost like I was waiting for this moment to be inspired by the band to write this group of songs.” Despite the imperfect production, the songwriting sounds unhurried and considered, the arrangements are virtuosic if not always balanced, and the lyrics, like the band’s name and album art, indulge the songwriter’s love of fiction. “And it was almost like this group of people coming together was a catalyst for me writing these songs. “I wrote all of those songs in three months, and that was during the period when we recorded our first LP as well, so it was a very productive period,” Murdoch tells Paste in an interview. It’s a testament to Murdoch’s songwriting brilliance that a record that came together especially quickly and was criticized for its murky mix and sub- par recording quality has maintained such popularity and influenced so many artists-among them Kings of Convenience, Sufjan Stevens, Alvvays, the Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, and Hovvdy.
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The group even performed the album in full at 2019’s Pitchfork Music Festival, and 2020’s What to Look for in Summer includes live versions of several of the tracks. The day that Murdoch snapped the picture that would be the cover of his band’s masterstroke, the novel on the menu was Kafka’s mysterious tale of a man arrested without explanation and forced to stand an unfair trial.Īs Belle and Sebastian didn’t do a music video for any of the songs on Sinister-or feature in their own press photos-this iconic photograph became the sole visual accompaniment to the songs on the album, many of which remain in the band’s setlist rotation today.
He used to offer recommendations to Stuart, the young bibliophile, whenever he’d visit. In the album’s sleeve notes, Murdoch notes that MacLaverty’s father was a writer with an impressive home library.
The red-hued artwork features a poorly lit photograph of his ‘buddy in illness’, Ciara MacLaverty-they both have chronic fatigue syndrome-resting beside a hardback copy of Kafka’s The Trial. Murdoch’s prose predilection makes it to the cover of Sinister. In the case of the band name, it’s Cécile Aubry’s 1966 novel about a young boy and his dog who lived in the French Alps during World War II that lends its title (Murdoch was a fan of the television adaptation). Literature is front and center, then, even before we hear any lyrics. The group are a seven-strong ensemble led by chief songwriter Stuart Murdoch. In actuality, Belle is a Pyrenees Mountain Dog, and Sebastian (Sébastien), a six-year-old boy. Like their Scottish neighbors in Cocteau Twins-who aren’t twins-Belle and Sebastian are, naturally, mistaken for a duo. The closest they get is their cellist between 19, Isobel Campbell. It’s no secret that the members of Belle and Sebastian are not called Belle or Sebastian. And those that write off their whimsical melancholia, their orchestral-imbued indie rock, as milk-mustache folk are missing out. But anyone who’s ever listened to their seminal 1996 release If You’re Feeling Sinister, which has its 25th birthday this November, knows that there’s much more to B&S than meets the eye. The Glasgow group’s reputation as tender, knit-wearing mommas’ boys certainly precedes them. “Old sad bastard music”-that’s Jack Black’s pejorative summary of Belle and Sebastian‘s music in the 2000 film High Fidelity.
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