Unanimously hailed in late 2008 as one of the year\u2019s best releases, Belle & Sebastian\u2019s The BBC Sessions<\/i> documents some of the adored Scottish indie bubblegum-pop group\u2019s live in-studio performances from 1996-2001. Indeed the double album, which features a second disc of Belle & Sebastian\u2019s 2001 concert in Belfast, serves as a welcomed artifact of the ever-popular group during their heyday as one of the last decade\u2019s most important bands.<\/p>\n
One must be cautious, though and note that perhaps some of its praise was overstated, because the album is really the only thing listeners and critics have heard from Belle & Sebastian since 2006\u2019s excellent The Life Pursuit<\/i>. A new studio album would have been much preferred, and as it stands now, although the band is not officially broken up, there are no plans for any future recording. <\/p>\n
Heartbreaking as that may be, The BBC Sessions<\/i> is a necessary release, even if only for the most dedicated of fans. The trouble with the album is that while it showcases Belle & Sebastian at their chamber-pop best, the live versions of songs like \u201cThe State I Am In,\u201d \u201cLike Dylan In The Movies,\u201d and \u201cThe Stars Of Track And Field\u201d are utterly and boringly identical to their respective studio counterparts. This evaluation holds true for every song in the collection. However, of particular value are the last four tracks, \u201cShoot The Sexual Athlete,\u201d \u201cThe Magic Of A Kind Word,\u201d \u201cNothing In The Silence,\u201d and \u201c(My Girl\u2019s Got) Miraculous Technique,\u201d which until now have been sort of lost in the bootleg world and they are preserved here in all their perfected sonic glory.<\/p>\n
So in the end it\u2019s safe to say that The BBC Sessions<\/i> is a long overdue compilation and one which any serious Belle & Sebastian collector will undoubtedly cry over\u2026not in the bad way, but in the silly indie pop snob sort of way. It\u2019s just not a record any casual listener should bother with. If Matador really wants to cash in on B&S\u2019s legacy, they need to prep a Best Of album and then include a bonus disc of essential live cuts. <\/p>\n
Fingers crossed for a new studio album. Pretty please. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":29782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6869],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41392","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-belle-and-sebastian","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41392"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}