M gave me this for my birthday when we met, on neutral ground in a pub in Manchester, on 14 July 1999.
I reminded her of this last Tuesday, when we met for the first time in over eight years, not so much a reconciliation (though it had an aspect of that for me) as an epilogue to close the book. She said she'd got a copy of the CD herself, a result, I think of that drive round the west of Scotland listening to If You're Feeling Sinister more or less on repeat.
The first minute of the CD is fantastic. I love the dry recording of the unaccompanied vocal at the start, followed by the strummed acoustic, and then the shimmering arpeggiated chords on the electric. (It made me think: why can't Philip Jeays, whose budget is probably similar to what Belle and Sebastian's was at the start of their career, record his songs this well.)
Sadly it's downhill from there. You realise that even that first song, which is the best on the album, is actually the same tune, or chord sequence, or whatever, as Lazy Line Painter Jane. Still, that first minute is worth it.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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