Belle and Sebastian- Boy with the Arab Strap

This album moves from their trademark confessional diary sketches (still in abundance, as on the disarmingly naive "Is It Wicked Not To Care", and the tender "Rollercoaster Ride") to genuine social criticism, as on the title track, a narrative meditation on Britain's pretensions and societal ills. "Chickfactor" pulls apart the banality the band encountered on arrival in New York, an experience which only served to deepen the bashful anger that makes BELLE & SEBASTIAN so endearing.

Track Listing:

1. It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career
2. Sleep the Clock Around
3. Is It Wicked Not to Care?
4. Ease Your Feet in the Sea
5. A Summer Wasting
6. Seymour Stein
7. A Space Boy Dream
8. Dirty Dream Number Two
9. The Boy with the Arab Strap
10. Chickfactor
11. Simple Things
12. The Rollercoaster Ride