Belly

Belly is a major mile marker in my musical life. They turned me down the indie path and were really the first female-fronted band in my life. Prior to Belly, I listened to the likes of the Cure, the Smiths, Soupdragons, Depeche Mode, and New Order. Those are all fine bands and I still count them among my top 20 or 30, but Belly changed things. I don't remember actually buying Star, but it was the very beginning of freshman year in college. My soon-to-be friend Josh and I bonded over the album, well that and his red hair. We went to see them play at the Riviera in Chicago. Radiohead was an opening band and it was one of the greatest concerts I've been to. I saw Belly two more times, both in 1995 in support of King.

Their first album Star received a lot of critical acclaim and won some awards, I think. Feed the Tree made the charts. It was certainly the song for which they are most known by non-fans. It's a good song, but I'll take Full Moon, Empty Heart or Untogether or Stay any day of the week, except Sunday because that's the Lord's day. I wonder how an 18-year old freshman in college woud perceive Star now. I often wonder if a lot of the music that I like is dated. Some of it certainly is. Hysteria by Def Lepard has to be one of the most dated albums I ever liked. Granted I was in 8th grade, but I listened to that maybe 5 years ago and it's not good. I loved it at the time, though. So, the point of this digression is that I don't think Belly is dated.

King came out Valentine's Day 1995, which is 14 years ago tomorrow. I have to admit, it took me awhile to get into it, but now I think it's better than Star. Pretty much every song on the album strikes a chord with my being. Seal My Fate, Super-Connected, and Red are the three best songs on the album, but the others are nearly equally as amazing. In addition, my favorite Belly song, Thief is a b-side on the Now They'll Sleep single. I just linked to a video on youtube for Thief. It's a bunch of shots of a cemetery, which is irrelevant. I just wanted you to be able to hear the songs. They released two singles from this album and the b-sides are all chock full of meaty goodness.

I was incredibly sad when Belly ended it's brief run. OK "incredibly" on the scale of bands breaking up, not true tragedy. I just felt a little melodramatic and wanted to qualify. Regardless, Belly was and is my favorite band, so I was disappointed. However, Tanya's solo career has been there to ease the pain.