Belle and Sebastian Makes Us Feel Exactly as We Are, Together
Go ahead, put on some of Belle and Sebastian’s “sad-bastard” music. It won’t cure all that ails you, but you might feel a little less alone — and a little more solidarity with everyone out there who’s suffering alongside you.
Members of Belle and Sebastian, from left to right: Mick Cooke, Richard Colburn, Bobby Kildea, Chris Geddes, Stevie Jackson, Sarah Martin, and Stuart Murdoch. (Marisa Privitera / Bestest)
There’s a scene in High Fidelity, the 2000 movie that follows the recently-dumped-for-a-New-Age-dilettante record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) as he tries to string a series of failed romantic relationships into some sort of coherent self-narrative, in which his employee Barry (Jack Black) barges into the record shop playing high-octane air guitar when he hears languid male vocals through the shop speakers. He’s appalled.
“What the fuck is that?!” he asks Rob and Dick (Todd Louiso).
“It’s the new Belle and Sebastian,” Dick tells him, in a voice just as languid as the music, wanting to muster the energy for defensiveness but failing.
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