In contrast with Arcade Fire who I wrote about yesterday, the return of Belle & Sebastian is invariably a welcome thing. They're always a band you can rely on for a certain amount of quality, some genuine warmth, some genuine soul, some genuine fun, like meeting up with a really special friend after not seeing them for far too long.
New Album, A Bit of Previous is due on May 10th. It will be their tenth, which grants them stalwart status surely. The two tracks they've released in advance of it, auger extremely well. Firstly Unecessary Drama, which appeared a month or so ago, lifts the harmonica part that The Smiths utilised to such good effect on their early BBC Radio evening sessions and is anthemic in the way that Arcade Fire's anthems often simply aren't. Meaning imbued with genuine warmth, empathy and love for the common man.
Second taster If They're Shooting at You is even better. A genuine soul song, like the kind of quieter moments on Dexys Midnight Runners records when they turned the volume and the lights down. They really plug into something here. It genuinely works.The backing vocals are heartwarming and affecting. They were for me at least. The song itself meanwhile is a pearl. One of the best things they've done. And Belle & Sebastian have done any number of good things down the years.
More importantly, the band have pledged all royalties from this song for streaming and digital sales to the Red Cross for Ukranian relief. So it's well worth buying, or at least streaming. Then buying or streaming again.
Belle & Sebastian are not going to change the world at this stage in the game. But they're still here for those that always loved them and they can still come up with the goods. I look forward to the album greatly.
No comments:
Post a Comment