Its cresting finale, all Hammond organ whirls and raking electric guitar runs is the sound of the founding Belle and Sebastian line-up at the peak of their powers. Hyndland Parish Church, in which Belle and Sebastian rehearsed back in the early days, makes its reverb-heavy presence felt clearly than on this cloistered retro R&B jam, probably the band’s best-loved non-album track. “If you are feeling sinister go off and see a minister / chances are you’ll probably feel better if you stayed and played with yourself.” Darker still is the last chorus, which makes Sinister one of two songs on this list to resolve with a blunt reference to self-interference. “She was into S&M and bible studies / not everyone’s cup of tea”, runs one memorable line – perhaps the most memorable in the whole of the Belle and Sebastian canon. Thereafter it’s all stark lyrical imagery, touching on loneliness, boredom, lethargy, suicide, and the fallibility of “the vicar or whatever” when it comes to saving mixed-up souls (and all this from a churchgoing Christian). The gossamer bop of its title song – a deceptively dark rumination on faith and death– opens with field recordings of playground ambience made at a nearby primary school, before swelling electric guitar chords and a brisk drum beat enter, followed by a deftly sprinkled piano melody (a lift from a ubiquitous Renault car advert of the age). If You’re Feeling Sinister, from 1996, is Belle and Sebastian’s masterpiece. The group rehearsed in a church hall in their early years, and even the recording studio where they made their first four albums, CaVa Sound, was a former church. Murdoch gifted one of the test pressings of Tigermilk to his church minister, which seems appropriate, given that faith is an integral aspect of his songwriting – albeit in a way that’s far more whimsical and quizzical than preachy (not to mention often juxtaposed with profound impiety). By the pristine Tigermilk version Murdoch’s lyrics find their textured match in Stevie Jackson’s shimmering guitar line and Chris Geddes’s swirling keys, and Belle and Sebastian’s slanted charm comes alive. For purposes of comparison, dig out the scrappy, proto-B&S demo of The State I Am In from the rarities compilation Push Barman to Open Old Wounds, and between the two you can practicallyhear the group coalescing around Stuart Murdoch’s reflexively poetic songs, as the band formed via a college music course for the unemployed and a local open mic night, with magic clearly crackling in the Glasgow air (read former Belles bassist Stuart David’s memoir In The All-Night Café for a wonderfully detailed and funny recollection of the group’s first year). Over a Velvet Underground-do-Dylan bed of gently thrummed acoustic guitar and purring organ, our somewhat erratic protagonist watches his brother stand up with his sailor friend on his sister’s wedding day to announce that he’s gay, before marrying a pal to stop her getting deported, kicking the crutches from a crippled friend, getting his child bride drunk on whisky and gin, then giving himself to an understandably hesitant God (“There was a pregnant pause before he said … ‘OK’”). (This is just what I think are the lyrics so far, so some could be wrong.“I was surprised, I was happy for a day in 1975 / I was puzzled by a dream, stayed with me all day in 1995.” A delicate knockout of a first song and first lyric was a hallmark of Belle and Sebastian’s richly evocative first three albums, but nothing else unlocks the appeal of this Glasgow ensemble quite like the opening couplet to The State I Am In – track one of their 1996 debut Tigermilk, the softly creaking door into their sweet, strange, drolly funny and not a little sinister world, where it’s always a backwards-glancing daydream. I just want to know if there's actually a FULL song of this, and if so, what's the name? Because even Shazam doesn't know. If you want the happy feet version, here it is. Since this was years ago, maybe I should ask her if I don't get an answer soon, but IS there a FULL song? Or is it just in the soundtrack and she's thinking of another song? Because I feel like this song is older than the game itself I'm getting curious and I want to know the full song. She never told me the name, she just said she remembered it. When I played one of the stages in the game, she barged into my room and told me she knew what it was. It's in the Happy Feet 2 game soundtrack. I'm trying to find a certain song my mother claims she's heard.
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