Belle and Sebastian ‘A Bit Of Previous’ Album
Belle and Sebastian have announced their new album and first studio full-length in 7 years, A Bit Of Previous, will drop on May 6th via Matador. Ahead of the release, The band have shared a video for first single “Unnecessary Drama.” The UK band have also announced new 2022 North American Tour Dates.
“The song is about a young person experimenting in being a human again after a forced hiatus”, says frontman Stuart Murdoch. “The person is weighing up whether or not it’s worth the mess! Still, you dip your toe in and it becomes delicious, and you get too much of it. Between trouble and nothing, we still choose the trouble."
A Bit Of Previous was recorded in Belle and Sebastian’s hometown of Glasgow when plans to fly to Los Angeles in spring of 2020 were scrapped due to the pandemic. Says Murdoch in the liner notes: “We did it together, us and the city. This record was the first ‘full’ LP recording for B&S in Glasgow since Fold Your Hands Child, 1999. We clocked in every morning, we played our songs, we wrote together, we tried new things, we took the proverbial lump of clay, and we threw it every day.” The result is one the most diverse, hands-on, and thrilling entries in the band’s catalogue, self- produced and recorded (with contributions from Brian McNeill, Matt Wiggins, Kevin Burleigh and Shawn Everett).
A Bit of Previous? It’s a bit of everything, and a lot of what makes Belle and Sebastian so special and enduring. It’s a band tackling the insight, experience and responsibility that go with age and getting older and coming out all the more vital for it. There’s a touch of Buddhism in the title, too – a practice increasingly influential on Murdoch’s outlook in recent years and given a further manifestation via his popular weekly guided online meditation sessions. As Murdoch notes in the liner notes: “There is a firmly held belief in Buddhism that we have been reborn so many times and in so many guises that if we look around us, we are bound to see a person who has been our mother in a past life. And we are surrounded by people who have been our children. If we truly had that in our minds and in our hearts, we would drop the prejudice we had: our attitude to strangers and difficult people would alter emphatically.”
Belle And Sebastian
A Bit Of Previous
Track List
Matador Records
1. Young And Stupid
2. If They're Shooting At You
3. Talk To Me Talk To Me
4. Reclaim The Night
5. Do It For Your Country
6. Prophets On Hold
7. Unnecessary Drama
8. Come On Home
9. A World Without You
10. Deathbed Of My Dreams
11. Sea Of Sorrow
12. Working Boy In New York City
Belle and Sebastian 2022 Tour Dates:
24th May: Rabbit Rabbit, Asheville *
25th May: TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park, Indianapolis *
26th May: The Riviera Theatre, Chicago *
27 May: Palace Theatre, Minneapolis *
28 May: The Admiral, Omaha *
31 May: Paramount Theatre, Seattle +
1 June: Roseland Theater, Portland +
3 June: Greek Theatre, Berkeley %
4 June: Greek Theatre, LA %
5 June: Pappy and Harriet’s, Pioneertown +
7 June: The Van Buren, Phoenix +
8 June: The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Company +
10 June: The Criterion, Oklahoma City +
11 June: Stubb’s Waller Creek, Austin #
13 June: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville #
14 June: Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh ^
15 June: Wolf Trap, Vienna ^
16 June: SummerStage, Central Park, NY #
17 June: Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia #
18 June: Roadrunner, Boston #
Jul 15 Bristol, UK Lloyds Amphitheatre, Bristol Harbourside
July 16 Stirling, UK Cardross Estate, Doune The Rabbit Hole
Nov 13 Cardiff, UK Great Hall – Student's Union
Nov 14 London, UK The Roundhouse
Nov 15 London, UK The Roundhouse
Nov 17 Sheffield, UK O2 Academy Sheffield
Nov 18 Liverpool, UK Olympia
Nov 19 Hull, UK Asylum, Hull University Union
Nov 21 Aberdeen, UK Beach Ballroom
Nov 23 Edinburgh, UK Usher Hall
Nov 24 Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK O2 City Hall, Newcastle
Nov 25 Manchester, UK Manchester Academy
Nov 27 Cambridge, UK Corn Exchange
Nov 28 Birmingham, UK O2 Academy Birmingham
Nov 29 Southampton, UK O2 Guildhall Southampton
Nov 30 Brighton, UK Brighton Dome
* with Divino Niño
+ with Thee Sacred Souls
% with Tennis and Thee Sacred Souls
# with Los Bitchos
+ with Japanese Breakfast
2023 Tour Dates:
10-Jan France, Paris, Casino de Paris
11-Jan Holland, Utrecht, Tivoli Grote Zaal
14-Jan Germany, Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
16-Jan Sweden, Gothenburg Tradgarn
17-Jan Sweden, Stockholm Filadelfia
18-Jan Norway, Oslo Sentrum Scene
19-Jan Denmark, Copenhagen Vega
21-Jan Germany, Berlin Tempodrom
22-Jan Germany, Munich Muffathalle
23-Jan Switzerland, Zurich X-tra Limmathaus
25-Jan France, Clermont-Ferrand, Co-op de Mai
26-Jan Italy, Milan Fabrique
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