2022 Charity Shop Purchases #75 - Belly -Star
This weeks Ballantrae Tanya Donelly and/or Kristin Hersh contribution is Star the 1993 debut album on 4AD by Tanya's third major band Belly who are making their debut on these pages.
Following on from Throwing Muses and Breeders they lasted from 1991 -1996 not forgetting the obligatory comeback from 2016 onwards.
Stars, as well as Tanya on guitar and vocals also features brothers Chris (drums) and Thomas (guitar/organ) Gorman and Fred Abong on bass.
The album sruck gold in the US selling over 500,000 copies with the albam and band receiving two Grammy nominations in 1994.
Wiki writes that along with alternative rock and jangle pop the songs on Star also dig into haunting avant folk rock with Tanya credited with pushing dream pop's boundaries by trimming away its pretentions but keeping its trancy harmonies. So there you have it, it was certainly critically well received.
Will either of the step-sisters feature next week? Stay tuned to find out
There's a Fall riff in that first tune (No Xmas for John Quays). Neither track will be retained by me, an easy listen but nothing memorable
ReplyDeleteGreat choices, loved this band and this album. So much so I used to have a Belly tshirt, no idea what happened to it though, I think it went the way of many a band tshirt and ended up being used to clean the car...
ReplyDeleteFeed The tree is gorgeous, one of the songs of 1994.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great album. As Swiss Adam say, Feed the Tree was a major song of the period. A keeper surely?
ReplyDeleteYup
DeleteThis, on the other hand, is a much better find.
ReplyDeleteStar is a good example of how to describe an OK sort of album that has 2 absolute killer tracks* but quite a lot of (not filler exactly but) ordinary songs. Haven't played it for nigh on 15 years so I started off wanting to describe it as a great album but then apart from those two stone cold classics realised that they raised the album to a profile that the whole of it doesn't actually merit.
ReplyDelete* Gepetto is by a mile the best track on this album - surprised you didn't post that, Slow Dog a worthy second place and Feed The Tree a distant third.
As for George, none of his comments will be retained by me, although they're easy to read there's nothing memorable about them!
Spence makes an excellent point in that 'Star' has a number of excellent tunes, but with a fair amount of tracks that haven't really stood the test of time. Worth mentioning that some of the b-sides that came with the singles from the album are worth a listen.
ReplyDeleteThe follow-up album. 'King', proved to be a real disappointment.
But if you come across 'Sweet Ride', a 'best of' compilation released in 2002, I'd suggest you take it to the till of the charity shop. It's really good, and has a few alternative mixes of some of the better known songs.
https://www.discogs.com/master/299071-Belly-Sweet-Ride-The-Best-Of-Belly