‘Dog On Wheels’ by Belle & Sebastian

Only a few days ago, I listened again to ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’, the most polished, and perhaps the most successful of Belle and Sebastian records. From there, I go to here, Belle and Sebastian’s first EP. In reality, this barely counts as a real record. Released after the first two albums had made a bit of stir, this EP contains four demo tracks recorded before Belle and Sebastian were even a band. It is, shall we say, considerably less polished than their later work.

It’s better than you might expect, though. ‘Dog On Wheels’, the first track, has some convincing energy, and a nice trumpet line. ‘The State I Am In’, familiar through it’s ‘Tigermilk’ version is also pretty well formed here. The slower pace gives Stuart Murdoch’s lyrics space to breathe – it’s pretty clear that at this early stage, they are the bands main selling point. ‘String Bean Jean’ ups the tempo and adds some wild-west style guitar work and a harmony which, although slightly ropey, shows the promise of things to come. The final track, ‘Belle And Sebastian’ has some lovely arrangements, but the budgetary restraints are hard to escape. It also suffers from a vocal performance that only a mother could love. In later years, Murdoch would become a fine delicate vocalist – at this point, it would charitable to say he was still finding his feet.

I heard nothing of this when it was released, but I remember it being around. I was an avid reader of the music pages on teletext, and I remember this record being named their single of the year. In a sense, this is an inexplicable choice, but there is something about it that appeals, even if it’s just the knowledge of what was to come.