Having listened to Nick Drake and Belle and Sebastian let me make the following (important ha ha) statement: The similarities between the Nick Drake and B&S are primarily stylistic. The vocal qualities of Stuart's voice is a bit similar to Nick's, and there are similarities in some of the accoustic guitar songs. However, even here there are differences. Nick Drake has a super haunting quality in all the songs that almost communicates a certain creepiness. His voice is haunting, and he has this real neat guitar technique that has the same effect. In terms of this, I would compare Nick Drake more to Tim Buckley or his son even. With B&S, the underlying theme I get out is innocence, love of their friends, and hope for a better world (which is probably why so many of us in the anorak twee community love them so much). There are other differences. I couldn't imagine Drake doing a lot of the songs off Tigermilk (like Electronic Rennaissance, You're Just a Baby, or I could Be Dreaming). The only song on Tigermilk that has a bit of the Drake quality is Mary Jo, and just in the beginning. Most importantly, Drake comes out of a completely different era and that accounts for a huge difference in the music. In summary, comparisons are warranted, but I suppose you could compare B&S to a lot of bands which might or might not do them justice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net -----------------------------------------------------------------------