hello sinister, You know, even though there's a lot of bands I like, there are about two that I listen to all the time. People have been talking about lyrics versus music... for me the important thing is the *way* the singer sings what they sing (combined with the music of course). It's all about the personality that comes through, and about feeling sure that the music is tapping into something true and beautiful even if you can't quite pin it down. Or as Nick said:
Although I can't quite follow 'The Model' either, I'm convinced in that song that Stuart knows exactly what he's on about... The kind of lyrics I can't really interpret at all and yet which make perfect sense all the same.
Stuart's personality obviously shines through, both in his songs and in what we've seen of the 'real life' him, and even if he makes mistakes now and then he really has nothing to worry about as his intelligence and loveliness seem so unshakeable (by the way does anyone else think we're lacking a word for when you want to describe someone who's just great... 'nice' is meaningless, 'cool' could just mean they're trendy, 'sound' perhaps comes closest but is kind of naff? anyway). And on the basis of this I can see why people have problems with Isobel - she's more of a central presence than, say, Sarah, and so her personality and style become an issue... and compared to Stuart she's kind of hard to interpret. And I would have expected myself to be wary of her, or maybe even to dislike her. But I think I do like her. The reason I've been moved to write this is because I saw that 'The Gate' had nil points on Sam's vote thing, and to me this song (and 'Is it Wicked Not to Care', and some - not all, but some - of the Gentle Waves songs) have that same elusive hidden meaning/beauty (lack of a word again) as some of Stuart's - more to me than a song like 'Slow Graffiti', although I know many people like this a lot so of course it's all down to personal preference. She gets it wrong sometimes but I do think sometimes she gets it very right. As for 'Family Tree', Nick (again) said something about "astonishingly asinine" and "guilty pleasure"... why do you feel guilty Nick?! Don't forget it's in character... and while Stuart's disenchanted schoolgirls usually speak more knowingly through Stuart in the third person, maybe this time he thought it would be fun to write something in a more simplistic style for Isobel to sing in the first person. But anyway you shouldn't listen to anything I say about hidden meanings - I have to admit I didn't realise 'Ease Your Feet in the Sea' was about suicide. kaytee x +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+