Music Arcades: Belle and Sebastian: Push Barman to Open Old Wounds

I got this last year, shortly after it came out. It was ideal for me in collecting together all of Belle and Sebastian's EPs, which I could never keep up with (always liking their stuff, at least until recently, but never being obsessive enough to anticipate each release). It came on holiday with us to Sicily (along with John Peel's FabricLive) and also went down a treat during our time in the car.

Listening to it again now, there is one track on each CD that stands out. On the first it's Lazy Line Painter Jane, which is one of those songs that I've loved since I first heard it on the radio, and now it's growing on me even more, like it's wormed its way into my memory, so that when it starts I think, "Is this that one that goes 'you will have a boy tonight', because I like that one"; and then I realise that, yes, it is that one, and that the build to 'you will have a boy tonight' is fantastic, too, and so is the bit that comes after it. Then I think: "this is one of my favourite pop songs ever". Which makes me think I should give it more concentrated attention and see what it's all about, whether I can join the dots between 'having a boy' and that verse about a dose of thrush, for example. So I turn to the lyrics in the CD booklet, hoping that there won't be a simple little story in them, and that the import of these phrases will be forever just beyond my grasp and — phew — of course, I was right and I was safe, because the lines don't join up and I don't know what the song is about, or who Lazy Line Painter Jane is, and I like it like that.

The second disc is a bit more even and has several excellent songs. Legal Man is my favourite for its exuberance and its arrangement. I like This is Just a Modern Rock Song too. And Take Your Carriage Clock and Shove It.