New Belle & Sebastian album is “really good”

Uh-oh. First (proper) music post of the year, and it marks the unexpected release of a new Belle & Sebastian album Late Developers. As the title of this post suggests, I think that the album is “really good”, with some unashamedly poppy hits like Do You Follow and the deliciously synthy first release, I Don’t Know What You See In Me setting the tone:

The clear standout for me though, is When We Were Very Young, which takes long time listeners right back to the bands’ 90s roots and in which Stuart Murdoch yearns for an existence more exciting than the current mundanity, but instead gets “real life”, which – as we are all well aware – is actually rather rubbish.

Sadly, the band have just cancelled their upcoming North American tour, citing the need for Stuart to recover following illness at the end of last year. But that won’t stop you listening at home to what they made before he got sick.

Spotify link.

2018 album news

Lifted (in part at least) from the BBC 6 Music article 18 albums we’re looking forward to in 2018. As ever, their selection does differ somewhat from mine, but there is still some correlation.

I heard the “new” Manic Street Preachers single International Blue for the first time yesterday (hey, it’s been December) and I was instantly hooked. Described – accurately – as a sister song to this immortal classic:

…it promises much for their Resistance is Futile album, due early April.

We’re also “promised” offerings from Sleaford Mods, Muse (who knows what we’ll get this time: I’m going for a glam rock orchestral rave electronica classical piano opus), hometown boys the Arctic Monkeys and the rest of those Belle and Sebastian EPs.

That’s a lot of potentially great music to look forward to. 2018 could be almost as good as several of the previous years have been.

Pilot

Big braai at our place today, so I’m writing this in advance. That’s not to say that I wasn’t going to share this amazing song anyway. As a follow up to We Were Beautiful it ticks every B&S box. The oboe box is particularly well ticked from the very first bar.

As a message of unfaltering, unconditional love it hits the mark completely. I see it as a parent’s reassurance and commitment to a child, but it could be any caring, nurturing relationship I guess.

This is the teaser for the second of three EPs that Belle and Sebastian are releasing over the next few months.
It’s worked. My interests are piqued.

Concert tonight/We Were Beautiful

It’s another Rite of Passage moment this evening as we take Scoop to her first “real” concert. She’s done several local acts at local places…

…but this evening’s Bastille concert at Grand West will be her first international one.

Thus, I thought it would be appropriate to stick a Bastille tune on here. However, having gone to their Youtube, I then spotted the new Belle and Sebastian video that I’ve been wanting to share for ages. And given that I’m going to see the real thing later, I felt that I might as well forgo a Bastille video and give you that instead.

Really good song. Really simple video. A Saturday morning in Glasgow. And a trumpet.

Concert review tomorrow (maybe).