Damn, it’s a violent world out there! With mixed martial arts taking over from backgammon as the extreme fighting game of choice among young, intellectual sociopaths and back-window decal truck accessories depicting Calvin pissing on anything and everything his stream can hit (Dodge logo, "dispatchers," a missionary Hobbes), it seems there is no time or consideration given to those wanting nothing more than to sit idly in a window nook while staring wistfully through a rain-soaked pane reading L'Etranger and listening to a soundtrack of Bryter Layter and Forever Changes.
Thankfully, Glaswegian softies Belle and Sebastian have filled a much-needed void for the bedsit dreamers in all of us over the past dozen years, so it gives us much pleasure to hear that our heroes have a new double-disc collection coming out November 18 on Matador. Entitled The BBC Sessions, the compilation will take tracks recorded for the broadcasting behemoth between 1996-2001 on one disc, and a live recording of a December 2001 Belfast show, plumped up with a number of crowd-favorite covers, on the other. I’m sure that concert was better than the non-existent, no-show the group pulled on me a few years ago. Now talk about inciting violence!
All this is bittersweet news, of course. Recent word of the band's hiatus has saddened the masses, prompting many to come to the uncomfortable conclusion that this new compilation may be the last release from Belle and Sebastian. For the sake of our brittle hearts, let’s hope it is just a retuning of the engine instead of a complete dismantling.
The BBC Sessions tracklisting:
Disc One - Radio Sessions:
1 The State I Am In (Mark Radcliffe Session; 07.96)
2 Like Dylan in the Movies (Mark Radcliffe Session; 07.96)
3 Judy and the Dream of Horses (Mark Radcliffe Session; 07.96)
4 The Stars of Track and Field (Mark Radcliffe Session; 07.96)
5 I Could Be Dreaming (abbreviated version; Mark Radcliffe session; 12.96)
6 Seymour Stein (Evening Session; 07.97)
7 Lazy Line Painter Jane (Evening Session; 07.97)
8 Sleep the Clock Around (Evening Session; 07.97)
9 Slow Graffiti (Evening Session; 07.97)
10 Wrong Love (later recorded as "The Wrong Girl;" Evening Session; 07.97)
11 Shoot the Sexual Athlete (John Peel session; 05.01)
12 The Magic of a Kind Word (John Peel session; 05.01)
13 Nothing in the Silence (John Peel session; 05.01)
14 (My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique (John Peel session; 05.01)
Disc Two - Live in Belfast (12.21.01):
1 Here Comes the Sun
2 There's Too Much Love
3 The Magic of a Kind Word
4 Me and the Major
5 Wandering Alone
6 The Model
7 I'm Waiting for the Man
8 The Boy With the Arab Strap
9 The Wrong Girl
10 Dirty Dream #2
11 The Boys Are Back in Town
12 Legal Man
