Posted on by Paul Little

Going For A Song: ‘Prettiest Eyes’

The Beautiful South – ‘Prettiest Eyes’

“Because if I’m singing about loneliness that’s the one word everybody in the entire universe understands,” he concluded. “How the fuck can you not understand something like ‘Prettiest Eyes’? I put my little placard up and it’s a placard for the lonely and the loved and the lost.”

Soon, I began to weep.

“Is it the gin?” wondered a sympathetic Paul.

“It’s not the gin,” I croaked, “it’s you! And your unmistakable truths!”

I’m Not with the Band: A Writer’s Life Lost in Music, Sylvia Patterson
Posted on by Paul Little

Going For A Song: ‘Sleep the Clock Around’

Belle & Sebastian – Sleep the Clock Around

In the summer, during its accompanying lockdown, I revisited all the early Belle & Sebastian albums up to and including the compilation Push Barman to Open Wounds and The Life Pursuit. That was the point, back in 2006, my attentions turned away from the band; and so, having the time now, I also caught up with the albums they made after then.

So this would explain why, when I opened my Spotify Unwrapped, they were my Top Artist of the year, but it still came as a bit of a surprise. Even more of a surprise was that ‘Is it Wicked Not to Care?’ was my favourite song of theirs; I’m putting this down to some quirk of the algorithm because that’s not the song I would have said, and why I’ve chosen ‘Sleep the Clock Around’ this week.

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