TS: Belly's "Star" vs Belly's "King"

super-connected is AMAZING - i do like that song better than feed the tree. almost much better, actually.

KING is actually a fantastic album but overall, i'm tooootally for Star.

and by the way, you need to like seriously delve into the throwing muses catalogue. like now.

like Stay, or Untogether, or that little interlude one with the witch lyingo n her back

white belly

it's all so acoustic and ethereal, with a great female pop sensibility.

i LOVE gepetto.

oh my god and one of my FAVORITE songs on star is "slow dog". i think that's what it's called. now THAT is a great pop song.

also, i have a belly shirt. i love it so.

"low red moon"

wow

Correct me if I'm wrong, Tiki Theater, but is "Feed the Tree" forgotten? It was a substantial alternative hit in spring '93, even crossing over to some Top 40 stations. I heard it in Gap not too long ago.

they make it sound so good

Maybe "Feed the Tree" isn't forgotten, I don't know - I guess I just mean forgotten to me! I hadn't even thought of Belly for probably 10 years until I saw this thread. Digging out "Star" tonight, though, for sure.

I remember that tour. Didn't see the LA stop, though.

no king really is terrific it's just a little less resourceful or something. it's like it's alll there, and the hooks are great - maybe it's the texture? i find it a little homogenic in texture, not as strangely eerie

i don't know why either, doesn't really add up at all.

look how cute tanya looks

i mean not great but good

haha yeah he is.

is beautiful

Anyone remember their cover of "Are You Experienced?" on that Hendrix comp?

I really recommend checking out Tanya's solo stuff if you like Star, especially lovesongs for underdogs.

and lovesongs for underdogs yes i would agree, but not so much for beautysleep. coupla good songs but too adult contemp.

one time i had this complete emotional breakdown to "the bees"

I just heard it on the way home from work. The temperature is 73 degrees, with nothing but endless blue. What a soundtrack.

That said, I have live versions somewhere of "Slow Dog" and "Gepetto" that are insanely great.

I also remember watching some circa-92 MTV countdown of like "the hottest people in music" or something that placed "The Babes of Belly" surprisingly high, based almost entirely on midriffs in the "Gepetto" video: something about it seemed mindblowingly dishonest to me, as neither Tanya nor Gail are people MTV would embrace as "hot" outside of a couple blurry tracking shots. Then again, it was the early 90s, when pickings were pretty slim for rock musicians on MTV you could describe as attractive.

My favourite Tanya Donelly solo is the version of Bum on the Sliding & Diving EP, way better than the album version.

I haven't heard This Hungry Life! I hope it is good.

Well, for someone as extensively experienced as Tanya, I'm not TOO surprised she still provokes discussion, but I know what you mean. I really am surprised people are so into King... I thought it wasn't favored.

i never dug king particularly, the first single (the name of which i've briefly forgotten) was really good but the album never sunk in for me

"Seal My Fate"? I had the opposite impression: one of the weaker songs, poorly representative of the album.

and i LOVE the thick texture on it

i can't believe i let some of them get so scratched and crap. real ramona from amazon like SOON.

i liked "feed the tree" and "slow dog," but i guess not enough to buy the album. i bought king because i loved "now they'll sleep," then went back and got star. i like it, but to me it's a little thin, both melody- and production-wise, compared to king. they're both good records, though. and i saw the video for "feed the tree" on vh-1 classic the other night and dug it as much as ever.

(speaking of videos -- now they'll sleep

either that or green.

I read somewhere back in 1995 or so that Belly actually broke up because King didn’t sell well enough, which makes me sorta sad. Is this true? Did anybody else hear that?

King never really did it for me, it just overproduced (I know, stupid word) and weighty. Her songs seemed more magical when she was just writing them with an acoustic guitar and then sticking a band on, rather than when they were writing AS A ROCK BAND.

I saw them twice, when Leslie from TM was still in the band, yeah, they were really kickass.

Supposedly the Radiohead/Belly tour was one giant mess of horndog indie musician crushes and not-so-twee flirtation.

I imagine Belly were selling a little better than Throwing Muses at that point (circa "Limbo")? Am I wrong stats people? Who also broke up due to declining sales leading to not even covering touring costs, at least that was the official statement.

"Bright Yellow Gun" peaked at #20 on the Modern Rock Chart, which is odd considering how omnipresent it seemed the spring of '95.

Speaking of the Muses, I remember some of the promotion for University consisted of reminding people that "Hey! This is the band the Belly chick used to be part of!" This no doubt irked Kirsten Hersh.

http://lawwww.cwru.edu/faculty/friedman/raw/images/American%20Flag.jpg