Belle and Sebastian Go Pop On New Tune

Belle and Sebastian Go Pop On New Tune

Pic by Anna Crolla

On first listen, this sounds like a pisstake or a new 2manydjs mashup but it’s for real and it’s the new single from arch pop hipsters favourites, Belle and Sebastian. Stuart Murdoch’s voice is unmistakable even if the melody and music are unexpectedly mainstream.

This could easily have been written for Taylor Swift or Little Mix but Murdoch lifts it from the generic mire. The song was written for the band by their producer and collaborator Pete Ferguson and is far removed from their comfort zone. There’s a wee elitist, Emperor's New Clothes twinge while listening; if George Ezra released this, it would be easily ignorable, but because it’s Belle & Sebastian, it possesses a unique edge. An edge which could make it a crossover hit. Check it out and judge for yourself.

More info & press blurb below

Belle and Sebastian just announced a surprise new album called Late Developers that will be released this Friday, Jan 13th, along with the video for first single ‘I Don’t Know What You See In Me’. The single is an 80’s-nodding banger and one of their poppiest offerings to date that is a collaboration with young Glasgow pop composer and producer Pete Ferguson.

Frontman Stuart Murdoch says on the track: "I was bicycling across Scotland last summer, listening to a mix of this song. It was written and produced for us by our friend Pete ‘Wuh Oh’ Ferguson.  As I listened to it, I felt lucky to be the first person to get to sing this song. I let my voice swoop and soar in ways that it maybe hasn’t before. And as I continued through fields of gold and green, I allowed myself to forget it was Belle and Sebastian, and pretend it was the latest hit on some random radio station. All music is escape, and perhaps we managed to escape a little further than usual with this unexpected tune. Thanks Pete!”

Arriving almost back-to-back to 2022’s Top Ten album A Bit of Previous, Late Developers is decidedly not a collection of outtakes or B-sides, but a completely new standalone album that comes on like its predecessor’s sun-kissed cousin. It is a full-hearted embrace of the band's brightest tendencies that is not only fresh and immediate but possessing of that Belle and Sebastian je ne sais quoi of a group that will always be there for you with the perfect word or melody for the moment, while admitting tunefully that “Every girl and boy / each one is a misery” (“When The Cynics Stare Back From The Wall”).

TRACKLIST

1. Juliet Naked

2. Give A Little Time

3. When We Were Very Young

4. Will I Tell You A Secret

5. So In The Moment

6. The Evening Star

7. When You’re Not With Me

8. I Don’t Know What You See In Me

9. Do You Follow

10. When The Cynics Stare Back From The Wall

11. Late Developers