Belle and Sebastian
The BBC Sessions
(Matador, 2008)

Belle and Sebastian’s first two albums, Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister, were easily the best music I heard in 1996. The eagerly awaited The Boy With the Arab Strap was well worth the two-year gap, even though 2000’s Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant seemed to show a slight drop off in originality. Storytelling, in 2002, was a surprisingly cohesive effort, considering it was a soundtrack album to the Todd Solondz film of the same name, and only a few minutes of the music was actually used in the film. Dear Catastrophe Waitress from 2003 was produced by Trevor Horn, formerly of the Buggles and Yes, and I felt it was overproduced and a little forced, verging on being a rash attempt at reaching a wider audience. The band’s latest effort, The Life Pursuit, from 2006, seemed to point the band back in the right direction, but somehow for me the bloom has long been off the rose. However, it’s no surprise that at this uncertain time in the band’s career, it would release this curious collection of songs recorded live on the BBC.

It seems the BBC has been clearing out both its radio and television vaults over the past few years, given the quantities of CDs and DVDs being released. BBC recordings have often produced mixed results. The recordings are live, but with no live audience. Also, the availability of many but not all of the electronic accoutrements of the recording studio often leads to recordings that sound a little sterile and stiff. Such is the case on this single disc release edition. Nonetheless, fans of the group will have to add this album to their collection.

Most of the music here is from the group’s early period: Five tracks are from 1996, five are from 1997, and the last four, which are the weakest, are from 2001. The sound on the tracks from 1996 is a little ragged, but songs such as “Like Dylan in the Movies”, “Judy and the Dream of Horses”, and “The Stars of Track and Field” are the defining songs of the group’s early sound and, even in this sparse setting, remind us just how powerful the songs alone are without full studio embellishment. The tracks from 1997 start off promisingly with the lyrically adventurous “Seymour Stein”, but “Lazy Line Painter Jane” unfortunately lacks the atmosphere of the original studio version, as it’s somewhat disjointed and has moments that sound overblown. The tracks from 2001 for the most part work well. Group members other than Stuart Murdoch get a chance to spread their wings, particularly Isobel Campbell on the last recordings she did with the band.

A very limited edition of this release may still be available when you read this, with a bonus disc of a concert from 2001 recorded in Belfast. Other than “The Magic of a Kind Word”, the set includes songs not included on the first disc, along with three covers: “Here Comes the Sun” (the Beatles), “I’m Waiting for the Man” (the Velvet Underground), and “The Boys Are Back in Town” (Thin Lizzy).

This release of old material had initially fostered talk that the band was breaking up. This appears to not be conclusively true. The group has just finished recording the soundtrack to a film called God Help the Girl. However, there has been speculation that the soundtrack may, in fact, be a Stuart Murdoch solo project and not an official Belle and Sebastian group project.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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