Bellyeye

Rough Trade went bankrupt the week Cardiacs' previous album, Heaven Born and Ever Bright (1992), was released, leaving the band in debt due to the album being impossible to find in record shops. The magazine The Organ put on a couple of gigs that proved that the band's huge underground audience would still fill places like The Venue. Despite the setback, Cardiacs' leader, singer, main songwriter and guitarist Tim Smith Org Records released "Bellyeye" as a limited single with "A Horse's Tail" and "No Gold" on 17 April 1995 in association with the Organ magazine, The songs were recorded "in Wintery January 1995 in the Dark." "Bellyeye" was technically the first single from Sing to God before the band officially released "Manhoo" and "Odd Even" on the Alphabet Business Concern label. The single came with a promotional sticker from Cardiacs' tour opening for Blur, who were fans of the band. Like other Org Records singles, the "Bellyeye" release experienced the fate of being rare, with singles with the sticker selling for more due to their rarity. "Bellyeye" was included as the eighth track on Part One of Sing to God, released on 10 June 1996 by the Alphabet Business Concern. == Composition ==

"Bellyeye" begins with a haphazard guitar riff in E♭ tuning played by Jon Poole, outlining the chord progression E♭-A♭-B-E♭-D♭-B, which notably uses only major chords; this is achieved by substituting minor and diminished chords from the diatonic scale with major triads from the relative minor key (B and D♭ instead of Cm and B°), creating a harmonic quality idiosyncratic to Cardiacs. Poole's riff is then joined by Tim Smith's rhythm guitar, his brother Jim's bass, and Bob Leith's drums. Tim Smith sings the 7½-bar verse, which is "interrupted" by the rest of the band singing a 3-bar refrain in E♮ major accompanied by a string section and Sarah Smith's saxophone. The verse-refrain passage repeats, but with a longer refrain which continuously changes key, climaxing into a frantic, organ-driven chorus in A major. The song uses musical variation in an unusual manner, typically introducing a section in a rhythmically uneven form and later repeating it without the irregularities (e.g., only the third verse lasts 8 full bars and is not "interrupted" by the refrain). After the final chorus fades out, a new melody abruptly appears as a recapitulation of the song's core elements with "harpsichord, tambourine and an oddly-treated guitar" which transitions into A Horse's Tail, the following track on Sing to God. == Reception ==

In his book Cardiacs: Every Album, Every Song, Eric Benac says "Bellyeye" "showcases Tim's strong pop songwriting instincts and his love of dark lyrics". Benac opined that the production and arrangement of "Bellyeye" "could only have come from this particular Cardiacs album", but that the song is "poppier and straighter than normal" and "wouldn't be out of place on a Blur album." Benac noted the song's melodic bass and "clear and easy to follow" vocals by Tim Smith. Regarding the song's lyrics, which contain the concept of saving or being saved, Benac suggests the singer is "a troubled person" at wit's end who "can't seem to handle life's demands" and "always looking out for people in trouble with an 'Acme Thunderer Blaster' to help", tying the idea of a saviour to a superhero or "that of the comic book shaped cruisaders". An alleged demo uploaded to YouTube has an arrangement of mostly piano and drums with light guitar and some horns, which Eric Benac said "isn't as rich as the album version". He noted that Tim Smith's "chords and playing obviously influenced the final take." In a review of the 2014 release of Sing to God by Sam Shepherd of MusicOMH, Shepherd called "Bellyeye" an example of Tim Smith's "keen pop nous" which, along with "Manhoo" illustrates the debt that Blur owe Cardiacs. The Quietus Sean Kitching said the song "clearly illustrates why Cardiacs were such an influence on bands like Blur to begin with", calling it "Smith's attempt at a slightly straighter pop song – totally euphoric like filling the cup of joy until it’s completely overflowing". Describing the single release, Org Records said "Where do you think Mr. Bungle, Blur or a million others get all their best ideas?" The Guardian's Pete Cashmore called "Bellyeye" one of "Cardiacs’ most sensible moments" along with "Is This the Life" and "Feeding the Plankton", opining that a compilation of such moments "would be a pure pop classic". Marco Sgrignoli of the Italian music publication Ondarock called "Bellyeye" a "kaleidoscopic and bombastic" composition, "fatally catchy" despite its "stainless obliquity". ==Track listing==

• CD single • "Bellyeye" (Tim Smith)3:50 • "A Horse's Tail" (Jon Poole)3:48 • "No Gold" (Smith)3:32 == Personnel ==

Credits adapted from the liner notes of the "Bellyeye" single. • Jim Smith – bass, vocals • Tim Smith – guitar, keyboards, vocals • Jon Poole – guitar, keyboards, vocals • Bob Leith – drums, vocals with: • Sarah Smith – massive saxes (tracks 1 and 2), singing (track 1) String quartet on track 3 • Chris Brierley – violin • Catherine Morgan – violin • Mark Pharoah – viola • Robert Woollard – cello Technical • Produced by Tim Smith Visual • Marina – artwork, photographs • James @ Filter – layout == Notes ==