| Belle & Sebastian – Your Secrets Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"I just had somebody tell me I was introspective to a fault" is seriously one of my all-time favorite song lyrics. From any band. This song is such a perfect lyrical conclusion to the Books EP -- you've got "Your Cover's Blown," with this shy guy who's trying, and failing miserably, to present himself as a player (and who writes poetry to woo the woman); "Wrapped Up In Books," about, I think, two people who are too introverted to ever admit their true feelings for each other; and this, which just seems like the culmination of the previous two songs -- the shy guy trying to finally get somewhere with this standoffish girl by appealing to her own apparent bookishness ("You could even read me your poetry"). It's like a collection of anthems for romantic nerds, which is awesome. |
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| Belle & Sebastian – I'm Waking Up to Us Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I see this song as being both about Isobel leaving Stuart and about leaving Belle & Sebastian (in, at that time, a purely spiritual sense, since it would be another few months before her actual physical departure). "Because you move in circles of the brave / Where art defines their lives," "I only wanted her to see / The beauty of the world surrounding her / But when she opened up her eyes / It's much too late..." and "She grew up and she left the rest of us" [note the plural] really make me think the romantic and career issues are just all tangled up here. It seems that he's saying that *she's* saying she's grown, she's changed, she's a different person and a different musician from who she was when the band was founded, and she's ready to try new things, move on with her life -- without him, and without B&S. And *that* is why this might just be their finest song; so much meaning and emotion (and instrumentation!) packed into a little under 4 minutes. And, yep, Isobel's "Monologue for an Old True Love" is very much a response to this -- it includes the lines "Talking so self-righteously / About everything you showed me, boy" and "Say you're angry now / I wonder why / You've got them round your little finger." I suspect she realized IWUtU's popularity... |
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| Belle & Sebastian – For the Price of a Cup of Tea Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Coming where it does on the album, I always like to think that the girl in the song is the same girl from "Acts of the Apostle Pts. 1 and 2." Which is possibly silly, but it adds an extra level of meaning to three songs that way! It's the "Soul black vinyl to stop your tears / You can use my stereo" that leads me to that theory...the theme of music as personal salvation that's so prominent in the AotA songs. Love, love, love this song, by the way. It was my introduction to B&S, it inspired me to seek out their entire body of work, and I cannot listen to it without singing and dancing. And there's just something so resonant about "She will finally be the person she wanted to be." Best thing on The Life Pursuit, for sure. |
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