Belle and Sebastian are one of the most cherished and celebrated UK acts of recent decades. They have released 11 critically acclaimed albums including the epoch defining Tigermilk, If You’re Feeling Sinister and The Boy With The Arab Strap and many classic EPs and singles, including most recently the How To Solve Our Human Problems trilogy. Triumphing against the odds to win best newcomer at the 1999 BRIT awards, being one of the first bands to curate their own festival, having their songs strewn across the landscape of popular culture everywhere from High Fidelity to Gilmore Girls and The Devil Wears Prada, every show ending in a welcomed stage invasion and fans adorning many of the band’s iconic album covers – Belle and Sebastian have defined the spirit of DIY in a career where the only constant has been innovation and individuality.
In late 2022, the band released A Bit of Previous, their ninth studio album and their first full-length in seven years – although they were busy in the interim, with The Boaty Weekender –a 3000 capacity star-studded four-day music festival on a cruise liner sailing the Mediterranean; a trilogy of EP’s; a soundtrack for the directorial debut of The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird; a live album showcasing the band’s present-day iteration as savvy main stage entertainers; and in 2020 a collaborative project with fans called ‘Protecting The Hive’.
A Bit Of Previous was rapturously received by critics and loyal fans alike. Both were surprised when in January 2023, the band released another record, recorded in the same session, titled ‘Late Developers’. Arriving almost back–to–back to 2022’s Top Ten album ‘A Bit of Previous’, ‘Late Developers’ 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”).
Praise for Belle and Sebastian
“Late Developers marks a real return to form, and is the band’s most rewarding album since 2006’s The Life Pursuit” – The Guardian
“A companion piece to last year’s A Bit of Previous, the Belles’ new album has a spring in its step remarkable for a band in their 27th year.” The Sunday Times
“Belleand Sebastian exercise their songwriting powers by crossing the boundary between sophisticated indie-pop and straightforward happy-clappy numbers with mainstream radio hit potential” The Quietus