On an unspecific afternoon in 1998, I made it down to Grounds Coffee house at UDMercy, McNichols Campus and struck up a conversation with a fellow college student I never saw again in my life.

My work shift was just like any other work shift... I showed up for work. Jaime made all the cups of coffee and I washed all the dishes. We both liked working there because we had access to a 5 disc changer and we could spin albums and have conversations about music with random strangers.

The clientele was pretty predictable... There were always a handful of commuter students who passed time between classes or waited for traffic to die down. The "regulars" consisted of Architecture and Theater Major students who would pay 50 cents for bottomless cups of coffee.

My favorite visitors where the "one and done's"... people who would come in, strike up incredible conversations and then you'd never see them again. You never commit their name to memory and you secretly hope they come back.

On an unspecific afternoon, we listened to 89X and an Oasis song played to an empty cafe... I don't quite recall how the conversation started. But beautiful young lady had made a comment about the song and told me that she was an anglophile. Her favorite bands were the Smiths, the Cure and she was head over heals for a band called Belle and Sebastian. We talked about music for a few hours and we talked about English classes. We listened to Tigermilk and I floored by what it sounded like.

I didn't see or hear from this person or Belle and Sebastian for years... infact it wasn't until 2000 when Jaime brought home a copy of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (my favorite Belle and Sebastian album) from the radio station that it occurred to me that I was listening to the same band I heard and loved a few years before in Grounds. I picked up all their albums after finally confirming who the fuck they were.

Tigermilk is a perfect album. It's arguably one of the finest first releases I've ever heard... it's scary to think how incredible the following album If You're Feeling Sinister album is in comparison too. It's the perfect jumping point for anyone who has never heard them play before.

Its equal parts intimate and ambiguous. I haven't listened to this album from beginning to end in a number of years and there are still moments on this record that give me goosebumps.

Expectations

And the head said "That you always were a queer one from the start"
For careers you say you wanna be remembered for your art
Your obsessions get you known throughout the school for being strange
Making life-size models of the Velvet Underground in clay
- Belle & Sebastian,

Stand out tracks:

Artists: Belle and Sebastian
Album: Tigermilk
Producer: Alan Rankins
Label: Electric Honey, Jeepster
Recorded: Ca Va Studios