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.

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 (who sings in an unusually low voice) on "Beyond the Sunrise" and Stuart Murdoch on "Women's Realm". Jackson also sings lead vocal on "The Wrong Girl". 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 Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir both former members of the Icelandic experimental group múm.

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

The album was released to generally favourable reviews.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 U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

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.

...
Wikipedia