Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant

While promoting their third studio album The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998), Belle and Sebastian made their TV debut on 20 November 1999, appearing on Apocalypse Tube. Shortly afterwards, on New Year's Day 2000, they previewed songs that were set to appear on their next album.^[1]

Stuart Murdoch recalled that this album felt more difficult to make than prior albums. Musically the songs were more complex and "demanded a pop precision that you just couldn’t skirt around" requiring the group to practice and refine things more than they had traditionally.^[2]

The band introduced many stylistic changes on this album, such as an organic strings section and more songs with lead vocals by other members of the band; Sarah Martin sings on "Waiting for the Moon to Rise", Isobel Campbell sings on "Family Tree", and performs duets with Stevie Jackson on "Beyond the Sunrise" and Stuart Murdoch on "Women's Realm". Jackson also sings lead vocal on "The Wrong Girl" and duets with Murdoch on "The Model" and "Don't Leave the Light On Baby". It is the last Belle & Sebastian album to feature bass player Stuart David, who departed the band after the album's completion.

The twin sisters pictured on the cover are Icelandic musicians Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, both from the band Múm.^[2]

Within the album's photography collection are pictures of two books, Beyond the Sunrise and I Fought in a War. Both books are titles of songs on the album, but the books are fictional creations of Murdoch's. Due to the band's interest in literature, fans have tried to locate the books that they believed had "inspired" the songs. Belle & Sebastian have informed fans about the fictive nature of the books on the "Questions and Answers" section of their website.^[2][3]

The album's title comes from a piece of graffiti on a public toilet wall Stuart Murdoch had seen years earlier and remembered.^[2][4]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Entertainment Weekly	B[7]
The Guardian	[8]
Los Angeles Times	[9]
Melody Maker	[10]
NME	8/10[11]
Pitchfork	6.7/10[12]
Rolling Stone	[13]
Spin	8/10[14]
Uncut	[15]

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The album was released to generally favourable reviews.^[5] Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant debuted at No. 80 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 113,000 copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[16]