The Boy With The Arab Strap
by Belle And Sebastian
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Belle And Sebastian bestography
The Boy With The Arab Strap is ranked 3rd best out of 21 albums by Belle And Sebastian on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Belle And Sebastian is If You're Feeling Sinister which is ranked number 138 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 9,544.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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The Boy With The Arab Strap track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
#
Track
Rating/Comments
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Boy With The Arab Strap rankings
The Boy With The Arab Strap rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,002nd | 1990s rank: 189th | 1998 rank: 15th Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 50 Music Albums of 1998 | 23/50 | 3 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Q magazine Recordings Of The Year 1998 | 7/50 | - |
| 2026 | martintho | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 98/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Pastiche | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 62/100 | 8 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Belle and Sebastian: So Far.. | 4/6 | - |
| 2026 | AAL2014 | Top 59 Music Albums of 1998 | 17/59 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Rhyner | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 79/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | UnliveableWilts | My Top 250 Albums (201-250) | 20/50 | - |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1998 | 37/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | stevengnz | Top 100 Music Albums of 1998 | 80/100 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 356 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,741 | |||
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!
The Boy With The Arab Strap collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 233 members
The Boy With The Arab Strap ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 447 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/31/2026 23:23 | AledJames | 1,682 | 69/100 |
| ! | 08/21/2026 14:32 | frollant | 36 | 92/100 |
| ! | 08/03/2026 05:17 |  Hayden | 7,889 | 72/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.9/100, a mean average of 78.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.6.
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The Boy With The Arab Strap favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 60 members
Forum mentions
This album has been referenced 77 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From matterhornrider 01/22/2026 17:46 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View forum post →From 
BestEverAlbums 09/01/2025 16:02 in Monthly overall chart movements
BestEverAlbums 09/01/2025 16:02 in Monthly overall chart movements“The overall chart is ever changing, and it's difficult to keep up with the detail of what's happening. So, for those people who are interested, this post attempts to show the latest movements - biggest climbers, movers, new entries and leavers for the top 100, 250, 500 & 1000 over the past month,…”
View forum post →From BestEverAlbums 10/01/2023 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements
BestEverAlbums 10/01/2023 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements“The overall chart is ever changing, and it's difficult to keep up with the detail of what's happening. So, for those people who are interested, this post attempts to show the latest movements - biggest climbers, movers, new entries and leavers for the top 100, 250, 500 & 1000 over the past month,…”
View forum post →The Boy With The Arab Strap comments
Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 18 comments |
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(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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From
ThuramThugood 12/23/2025 10:37 | #312275
Album Rating: 83.50
(1,002/12)
Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - The Boy With The Arab Strap
07.09.1998
1.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career 83
2.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Sleep The Clock Around 88
3.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Is It Wicked Not To Care? 78
4.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Ease Your Feet In The Sea 78
5.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - A Summer Wasting 82
6.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Seymour Stein 95
7.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - A Space Boy Dream 81
8.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Dirty Dream Number Two 96
9.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - The Boy With The Arab Strap 97
10.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Chickfactor 75
11.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Simple Things 76
12.Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - The Rollercoaster Ride 73
Ranked in order of preference:
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - The Boy With The Arab Strap 97
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Dirty Dream Number Two 96
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Seymour Stein 95
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Sleep The Clock Around 88
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career 83
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - A Summer Wasting 82
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - A Space Boy Dream 81
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Is It Wicked Not To Care? 78
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Ease Your Feet In The Sea 78
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Simple Things 76
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - Chickfactor 75
* Belle And Sebastian (TBWTAS - UK - SCO - Sep 98) - The Rollercoaster Ride 73 (Edited)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From
Untitled 04/22/2022 13:35 | #284491 | TOP COMMENT
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A decent album with a few highlights but it is let down by a large amount of filler and a few weaker tracks. The positives of this record are the Title Track and the album opener both of them are classic Belle And Sebastian and they capture their style perfectly. The moody vocals and the interesting lyrics are what makes the few songs on here so good along with the diverse instrumentation. However, the slower songs just feel a bit repetitive to me and I feel like they could be a bit more experimental with the instruments. The album does get a bit dry by the end and it does drag as well. Overall, the lyrics on this album are great but the music is weaker than their other releases in my opinion.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From
Errol 06/01/2020 15:01 | #252666
Very decent album faves-Arab strap,Seymour Stein and Rollercoaster.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From
PeterSmith 03/03/2019 14:09 | #232931 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Only getting round to this band in 2019 - pity I missed them at the time. Sinister brought me in and I slightly prefer that at the moment but this is also a superb album. I love the feel and sound of the simple title song which I rate as their best over these two albums.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From
benfitzuk 05/22/2018 06:19 | #215400
Decent album not the Best
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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