Although she’s arguably better known these days for the three albums she released with former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan, Isobel Campbell first crossed the collective radar as a member of Scottish indie-popsters Belle & Sebastian.
For my money, Belle & Sebastian, whilst still occasionally wonderful, just haven’t been as consistently great since Isobel left.
I always thought she was criminally underused when she was in Belle & Sebastian; she didn’t sing lead vocals on a track until their Brit Awards busting third album, the “The Boy with the Arab Strap”, and then once more on the follow up, “Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant”, which is probably my favourite album by them.
There’s something about both songs – and that something is undeniably Isobel’s frail, winsome, folky voice – which makes them stand out from the rest of the tracks on those two albums.
It’s the song that she sings on “Fold Your Hands…” that we’re visiting for our weekly dose of late night loveliness tonight:
Belle & Sebastian – Family Tree
More soon.
Nice to hear this one again.