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Tigermilk
Studio album by Belle and Sebastian
Released	6 June 1996
Recorded	4–6 March 1996
Studio	CaVa, Glasgow
Genre	Indie pop chamber pop
Length	41:37
Label	Electric Honey
Producer	Belle and Sebastian Gregor Reid
Belle and Sebastian chronology
Tigermilk (1996) If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)

Tigermilk is the 1996 debut album from Scottish pop group Belle and Sebastian. Originally given a limited release (1,000 copies) by Electric Honey, the album was subsequently re-released in 1999 by Jeepster Records.

The album is named after an instrumental that did not end up on the album — it was later performed on Belle and Sebastian's early tours. All of the songs on the album were written by Stuart Murdoch between 1993 and 1996, and originally performed solo on the Glasgow open mic circuit. Though he performs on the album, trumpet player Mick Cooke was not then an official member of the band.

Recording and production

Belle and Sebastian came together in Glasgow, Scotland in 1994 after vocalist Stuart Murdoch and bassist Stuart David met on a programme for unemployed musicians called Beatbox, funded by Stow College. In 1996, The pair reportedly enlisted the four five musicians they came across at a local café, settling on a line-up of Murdoch, David, guitarist Stevie Jackson, drummer Richard Colburn, keyboardist Chris Geddes and cellist Isobel Campbell. Their initial performances took places at venues such as church crypts, libraries and house parties.

Concurrently, Colburn, who shared a flat with David at the time, attended a music business course at Stow, run by Alan Rankine of the Associates. The end goal of the course was to take two songs from the class and record and release them through Rankine's record label Electric Honey. Colburn provided a demo tape Murdoch and David had recorded titled Rhode Island (later released as the Dog on Wheels EP). The college was extremely impressed and chose to support them in creating a full album. The band subsequently spent three days recording, finishing with an album's worth of songs.

Murdoch recalls that the group was still quite loose knit at the time Tigermilk was recorded and that the full ensemble had not played together before getting into the studio. Many of the supporting instrument parts were shaped as the group recorded. After recording, though, "we were a group, no question."

Composition

Author Dave Thompson, in his book Alternative Rock (2000), called it as a "gentle masterpiece, utterly in debt to Nick Drake (and a bit of Donovan too)". He said "The State I Am In", the album's opening track, "buoys the occasional sag; that and the slickly loose instrumentation, harmonies which haunt the fringe of fear, and a wealth of emotionally crippled reflection." Nine of the ten songs featured on the album were recorded live over a three-day period, followed by two days of mixing. The only track not recorded during these sessions, "Electronic Renaissance", originated as a demo Murdoch made at Beatbox using Cubase, and was mastered directly from a cassette recording Murdoch had made of the song being played on a local radio station, hence its lo-fidelity sound. Due to its stylistic difference from the other songs, its inclusion on the album initially proved controversial.

Release

Electric Honey issued Tigermilk in mid-1996, initially limited to 1,000 copies, which sold out in months. The band received praise from BBC radio DJs John Peel and Mark Radcliffe, subsequently earning them a radio session for the latter DJ in July 1996. Colburn said "then record companies and fans started calling, and we thought 'My God, what have done?'" They soon signed to the London-based label Jeepster Records. Tigermilk was reissued in 1999; by this point, copies of the original were being sold for $600.

The album's cover photograph was taken by Murdoch and features his girlfriend Joanne Kenney. Kenney also appeared on the cover of the Dog on Wheels EP.

Legacy

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Guardian
NME	8/10
Pitchfork	8.4/10 (1999) 8.5/10 (2020)
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Times	9/10
Uncut
The Village Voice	A−

Tigermilk was well-received upon its initial release, and earned a glowing review from Scottish culture magazine The List, who gave the band their first national press. The album has since sold over 124,000 copies. Pitchfork included "The State I Am In" at number 17 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

An eBay charity auction of the stuffed animal in the cover art of the Tigermilk album in 2019 was won by Lisa Carr of Washington, DC. Lisa Carr had also previously won an auction for bandleader Stuart Murdoch's car in 2002 and an auction of the stuffed animal on the cover of Dog on Wheels in 2004.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Stuart Murdoch

Personnel

• Stuart Murdoch – vocals, guitar, programming on "Electronic Renaissance"
• Stuart David – bass
• Isobel Campbell – cello
• Chris Geddes – keyboards, piano
• Richard Colburn – drums
• Stevie Jackson – guitar
• Mick Cooke – trumpet
• Joe Togher – violin
• Keith Jones – Korg Poly-61 synthesizer, sound manipulation on "Electronic Renaissance"

References

Citations

1. Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister. Pitchfork Classic. 2013. Event occurs at 13:20.
2. ^ Thompson 2000, p. 184
3. ^ Murdoch, Stuart. "Sleevenotes - Tigermilk". Belle & Sebastian.
4. Thompson 2000, p. 185
5. Nicholson, Susan (2 July 1996). "Sound Scene". Midweek Magazine. Perthshire Advertiser. p. 14.
6. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Tigermilk – Belle and Sebastian". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
7. Cox, Tom (23 July 1999). "Belle and Sebastian: Tigermilk (Jeepster)". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
8. Segal, Victoria (10 July 1999). "Grrr Power". NME. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
9. Chanko, Chip (July 1999). "Belle and Sebastian: Tigermilk". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 15 January 2006. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
10. Hogan, Marc (1 November 2020). "Belle and Sebastian: Tigermilk". Pitchfork. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
11. Maconie 1999, p. 124
12. Sheffield, Rob (2 September 1999). "Tigermilk". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
13. Wolk 2004, pp. 59–60
14. Costa, Maddy (3 July 1999). "Belle and Sebastian: Tigermilk (Jeepster)". The Times. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
15. Aiken, Kit (August 1999). "They're grrrreat!". Uncut (27). Retrieved 8 March 2020.
16. Christgau, Robert (28 March 2000). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
17. "The List: 31 May 1996". 31 May 1996.
18. Plagenhoef, Scott (15 September 2007). Belle & Sebastian's If You're Feeling Sinister. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781441194909.
19. "The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 20-01". Pitchfork. 3 September 2010.
20. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
21. "Belle and Sebastian Auction Tigermilk Cover Stuffed Animal for Charity". Pitchfork. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
22. "Bell & Sebs: £4k to Save the World". DrownedInSound. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2022.

Sources

• Maconie, Stuart (September 1999). "Belle & Sebastian: Tigermilk". Q (156). Retrieved 8 March 2020.
• Thompson, Dave (2000). Alternative Rock. Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion. San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-607-6.
• Wolk, Douglas (2004). "Belle and Sebastian". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.

External links

• Tigermilk at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
• Album info Archived 27 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine

• 1996 debut albums
• Belle and Sebastian albums
• Electric Honey (label) albums