Belle & Sebastian: Tigermilk LP

Tigermilk is simply gorgeous, an unaffected debut equal to the Smiths finest work, that seemed to arrive fully formed out of nowhere in June 1996. In songs like the pastoral, shimmering "The State I Am In" and the wonderfully naive "We Rule the School," bandleader Stuart Murdoch had already laid the seeds that would later come to such full, poignant fruition on If You're Feeling Sinister and The Boy with the Arab Strap. The 10 songs here have such a natural pop sensibility, such a grace and resonance, it's hard to believe that Tigermilk was originally only intended as a small-time project between seven Glaswegian friends.