Belle & Sebastian have just saved 2020 with the announcement of their new live album What To Look For In Summer. It will be comprised of a number of their live performances from last year, including the House of Blues in Boston, Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, and the exclusive and ever-so-cool Boaty Weekender, August 2019. They shared the news by releasing two videos, including a new live version of ‘My Wandering Days Are Over’. And, unsurprisingly, band favourite, fan favourite, everyone’s favourite, ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’.
We are concluding this strangest of years on a happy note with the release of a brand new live LP ‘What to Look For in Summer’. The album is released December 11th on @matadorrecords!
Pre-order here on CD and 2xLP. https://t.co/NW6SoBbuGp pic.twitter.com/HqEUXaHK2y— belle & sebastian (@bellesglasgow) October 27, 2020
The press release declares that What To Look For In Summer is “the sound of a band that’s always moving forward, a picture of Belle and Sebastian in 2019 that gives equal weight to early days and recent years”. Scanning the track-list to find cult favourites like ‘The Fox In The Snow’ alongside new singles like ‘We Were Beautiful’ confirms that this will be a wonderful collaborative effort between their early, twee days and their later, pop efforts, showcasing, no doubt, some of the best of their varied albums.
Speaking about putting the project together, frontman Stuart Murdoch said lightly, “we’d been badgered by our fan base to put out recordings of the shows … Touring the band is something that I never thought we’d do. It’s turned into the thrill of a lifetime, really, in a manifest, physical way. It’s just the nicest experience that I think I’ve had in my life.”
To announce the album, they have shared two new music videos set to live tracks: ‘My Wandering Days Are Over’ and ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’. The first is incredibly on form for Belle & Sebastian: a meet-cute on two escalators going in opposite directions, followed by a day of wandering Glasgow.
‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ is not fictional, but rather completely joyful clips of the band playing sensible and silly instruments alike from their respective homes. It combines the lockdown experience with all of the thrills of live music; you can hear every note and every cheer. You even get that final, immortal line that you can never quite catch on the recording: “Sunday bathtime could take a while…”
Stuart chats and adlibs and jokes through the end of the track and I realise that this is the kind of intimacy of a live performance that I didn’t even realise I had missed. Obviously, there is being in the crowd – that seems like a lifetime ago – but there is also being in the moment, and knowing that it is different to every other night of a tour for exactly that reason.
Both are filmed like all the best classic Belle & Sebastian videos – vivid colours, camera quality that leaves just a little to be desired, making a whole story out of the streets of Glasgow. ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ is so unbelievably contagious (even twenty-two years on) that when the camera pans round, you can see some neighbours dancing from their balcony. It seems likely that What To Look For In Summer will continue to emit this delightful energy in spades for the duration of its twenty three tracks.
Belle & Sebastian are a band that can’t really sit still. Their latest project was Days of the Bagnold Summer, starring Earl Cave and directed by Simon Bird, who you’ll know from The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner. The film is adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Joff Winterheart, and Earl Cave plays the lead character who is obsessed with metal and Metalllica. Naturally, Belle & Sebastian wrote and recorded the whole soundtrack.
What To Look For In Summer will be released on December 11 via Matador. You can peruse the tracklist below, where you’ll likely spot some old and forgotten favourites. If the two videos released today are anything to go by, Belle & Sebastian will be injecting them with something great and making them feel brand new again.
- The Song of The Clyde £ >
- Dirty Dream Number Two *
- Step Into My Office, Baby *
- We Were Beautiful +
- Seeing Other People %
- If She Wants Me @
- Beyond The Sunrise &
- Wrapped Up In Books +
- Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John $
- Nice Day For A Sulk (digital only) #
- I Can See Your Future *
- Funny Little Frog ^
- The Fox In The Snow+
- If You’re Feeling Sinister*
- My Wandering Days Are Over*
- The Wrong Girl #
- Stay Loose%
- The Boy Done Wrong Again #
- Poor Boy%
- Dog On Wheels%
- The Boy With The Arab Strap+
- I Didn’t See It Coming+
- Belle And Sebastian #
£ recorded Banchory Studios, Glasgow, August 6, 2020 (digital version)
> recorded by Kenneth McKellar (vinyl + CD versions)
* The Boaty Weekender, August 10, 2019
+ Royal Oak Theatre, Michigan, July 21, 2019
% Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, July 12, 2019
# House Of Blues, Boston, MA, July 13, 2019
^ M-Telus, Montreal, QC, July 15, 2019
@ Carnegie Hall – Pittsburgh, PA, July 18, 2019
& House Of Blues, Cleveland, OH, July 19, 2019
$ Auditoria Baluarte, Pamplona, Barcelona, November 4, 2019
