Belle & Sebastian

★★★★ A Bit Of Previous MATADOR. CD/DL/LP

Back to Glasgow for septet’s first non-soundtrack album since 2015.

Covid scuppered plans to record A Bit Of Previous in LA. So, for the first time in over 20 years, they stayed home and, coincidentally or not, made their best record in over 20 years. The album title suggests a back-to-basics affair, though only the exquisite Do It For Your Country could fit snugly on 1996 debut Tigermilk, as the remainder affirms their more recent, diverse ambitions: blue-eyed soul-gospel (If They’re Shooting At You), girl-group melodrama (A World Without You), ’70s rock (Unnecessary Drama rides a harmonica with a thrilling momentum) and other retro curios (Deathbed Of My Dreams visits Lee Hazlewood country). Throughout, frontman Stuart Murdoch’s succinct dramas are typically populated by vulnerable dreamers and seekers, some still Young And Stupid (the opening track), others a reflection of how his Christian beliefs embrace the tenets of Buddhism.