The room › Artists › Belle and Sebastian
Where to start with Belle and Sebastian
Start with I Want The World To Stop — Write About Love, 2010. That is the track sitting closest to the centre of all 91 Belle and Sebastian tracks in Zubissou Sounds — a listening room of 15,847 tracks placed one at a time by hand, not an algorithm.
This page is not a discography and not a ranking. It describes exactly one thing: the 91 Belle and Sebastian tracks that one person put in one room, and where they sit relative to each other. The starting point above is chosen by a rule you can check — of the 91 tracks, it is the one nearest the average position on the four knobs the room runs on, and where two sit equally close the one on a named record wins. Nothing here calls any record better than any other.
The density knob swings 64 points across these tracks, the widest of the four — it is the axis this artist actually travels along in this room.
Three ways in
The one track, if you only play one
I Want The World To Stop — Write About Love, 2010. Of the 91 Belle and Sebastian tracks here, this one sits closest to the average of all of them across the four knobs the room runs on. It is the least surprising thing in the collection, which is exactly what an entry point should be.
If you want the sparse end
It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career — The Boy With The Arab Strap, 1998. The lowest density reading of any Belle and Sebastian track in the room (17 out of 100). This is as far towards sparse as the collection goes.
If you want the wall end
Dirty Dream Number Two — The Boy With The Arab Strap, 1998. The highest density reading here, at 81 out of 100 — a 64-point swing across the collection towards wall.
Where Belle and Sebastian sits in the room
Zubissou Sounds does not have playlists or genres you click. It has knobs. Every track carries a position on each one, set by hand when the track was added, and you find music by setting the room to a state rather than by searching for a name. These are Belle and Sebastian's average coordinates and the range they cover.
All four run 0–100. They are placed by a person, not derived from audio analysis or from any streaming service's feature data.
What is here, record by record
| Album | Year | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| The Life Pursuit | 2006 | 13 |
| Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 | 12 |
| The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 | 12 |
| Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 | 12 |
| Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 | 11 |
| Write About Love | 2010 | 11 |
| If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 | 10 |
| Tigermilk | 1996 | 10 |
Every Belle and Sebastian track in the room
| Track | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| If You're Feeling Sinister | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| Judy and the Dream of Horses | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| Like Dylan in the Movies | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| Mayfly | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| Me and the Major | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| Seeing Other People | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| The Boy Done Wrong Again | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| The Fox in the Snow | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| The Stars of Track and Field | If You're Feeling Sinister | 1996 |
| Electronic Renaissance | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| Expectations | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| I Could Be Dreaming | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| I Don't Love Anyone | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| Mary Jo | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| My Wandering Days Are Over | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| She's Losing It | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| The State I Am In | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| We Rule The School | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| You're Just A Baby | Tigermilk | 1996 |
| A Space Boy Dream | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| A Summer Wasting | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Chickfactor | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Dirty Dream Number Two | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Ease Your Feet In The Sea | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Is It Wicked Not to Care? | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Seymour Stein | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Simple Things | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Sleep the Clock Around | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| The Boy with the Arab Strap | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| The Rollercoaster Ride | The Boy With The Arab Strap | 1998 |
| Beyond the Sunrise | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| Don't Leave the Light On, Baby | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| Family Tree | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| I Fought in a War | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| Nice Day for a Sulk | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| The Chalet Lines | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| The Model | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| The Wrong Girl | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| There's Too Much Love | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| Waiting for the Moon to Rise | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| Women's Realm | Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant | 2000 |
| Asleep On A Sunbeam | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Dear Catastrophe Waitress | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| I'm a Cuckoo | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| If She Wants Me | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| If You Find Yourself Caught In Love | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Lord Anthony | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Piazza, New York Catcher | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Roy Walker | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Stay Loose | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Step Into My Office, Baby | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Wrapped Up In Books | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| You Don't Send Me | Dear Catastrophe Waitress | 2003 |
| Act of the Apostle | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Act of the Apostle II | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Another Sunny Day | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Dress Up in You | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| For the Price of a Cup of Tea | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Funny Little Frog | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Mornington Crescent | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Song for Sunshine | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Sukie in the Graveyard | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| The Blues Are Still Blue | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| To Be Myself Completely | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| We Are the Sleepyheads | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| White Collar Boy | The Life Pursuit | 2006 |
| Calculating Bimbo | Write About Love | 2010 |
| Come On Sister | Write About Love | 2010 |
| I Can See Your Future | Write About Love | 2010 |
| I Didn't See It Coming | Write About Love | 2010 |
| I Want The World To Stop | Write About Love | 2010 |
| I'm Not Living In The Real World | Write About Love | 2010 |
| Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John | Write About Love | 2010 |
| Read The Blessed Pages | Write About Love | 2010 |
| Sunday's Pretty Icons | Write About Love | 2010 |
| The Ghost Of Rockschool | Write About Love | 2010 |
| Write About Love | Write About Love | 2010 |
| Allie | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| Enter Sylvia Plath | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| Ever Had A Little Faith? | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| Nobody's Empire | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| Perfect Couples | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| Play For Today | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| The Book Of You | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| The Cat With The Cream | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| The Everlasting Muse | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| The Party Line | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| The Power Of Three | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
| Today (This Army's For Peace) | Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance | 2015 |
Near neighbours in this room
These are the artists whose average knob position sits nearest to Belle and Sebastian's in this room. It is a coordinate match, not a claim that they sound alike.
- Where to start with Vampire Weekend — indie pop, 12 tracks
- Where to start with ESKA — jazz, 10 tracks
- Where to start with The Beatles — rock, 196 tracks
What the open databases say
MusicBrainz lists Belle and Sebastian as a group, from Glasgow, the United Kingdom and formed in 1996. Its contributors tag the artist indie pop, twee pop, chamber pop and baroque pop. These are the open database's facts, not mine — you can check them against the MusicBrainz entry.
Questions
How many Belle and Sebastian tracks are in Zubissou Sounds?
There are 91, across 8 albums. 91 of them carry a date, running from 1996 to 2015. That is the whole of what this room holds — it is one person's collection, not a discography.
Is this a best-of, or a ranking?
No. Nothing here is ranked and no track is called better than another. The starting point is picked by arithmetic — the track closest to the centre of all the others on four measured axes — and the rule is printed above so you can disagree with it.
Where do the knob numbers come from?
They are set by hand, one track at a time, by the person who added the track. They are not audio analysis and not a Spotify feature. Mood, energy, density and the head/body balance each run 0 to 100. All 91 of these tracks have been read individually — nothing on this page is running on a default.
Can I listen to these here?
Not yet from this page. Zubissou Sounds is in private beta — the room itself plays through Spotify, and 91 of these 91 tracks are matched to a Spotify ID and ready to play the moment you are in. The waitlist form is at the bottom of this page.