"The song is about a young person experimenting in being a human again after a forced hiatus”, says front man 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."
The BRIT Award-winning seven-piece have also announced a spring-summer US tour. Complete dates can be found below, alongside rescheduled UK and European tour dates for 2022 and 2023.
A Bit Of Previous was recorded in Belle and Sebastian’s hometown of Glasgow after plans to fly to Los Angeles in spring of 2020 were scrapped due to the pandemic. It was produced and recorded by the band, with contributions from Brian McNeill, Matt Wiggins, Kevin Burleigh and Shawn Everett.
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."
There’s a touch of Buddhism in the album title – 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.”
The last few years have seen Belle and Sebastian in a host of eclectic and inspired undertakings: The Boaty Weekender – their own 3000 capacity star-studded four-day music festival on a Mediterranean cruise liner; a soundtrack for the directorial debut of The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird; a trilogy of EPs; a live album showcasing their present-day iteration as savvy main stage entertainers; and in 2020 a collaborative lockdown project with fans called “Protecting The Hive.” The common denominator, which can be traced back to their earliest days, is a restless DIY spirit and an unmediated bond with their fans and surrounding musical community.
A Bit Of Previous is available in four different artwork covers across LP, CD and digital. The Belle and Sebastian and Matador Webstore versions of the LP include a bonus 7" with standalone track A Bit Of Previous. Pre-order the album HERE.
Track List: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
May-25: TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park, Indianapolis *
May-26: The Riviera Theatre, Chicago *
May-27: Palace Theatre, Minneapolis *
May-28: The Admiral, Omaha *
May-31: Paramount Theatre, Seattle +
Jun-1: Roseland Theater, Portland +
Jun-3: Greek Theatre, Berkeley %
Jun-4: Greek Theatre, LA %
Jun-5: Pappy and Harriet’s, Pioneertown +
Jun-7: The Van Buren, Phoenix +
Jun-8: The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Company +
Jun-10: The Criterion, Oklahoma City +
Jun-11: Stubb’s Waller Creek, Austin #
Jun-13: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville #
Jun-14: Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh ^
Jun-15: Wolf Trap, Vienna ^
Jun-16: SummerStage, Central Park, NY #
Jun-17: Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia #
Jun-18: Roadrunner, Boston #
Jul-15 Bristol, UK Lloyds Amphitheatre, Bristol Harbourside
Jul-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 Thee Sacred Souls
% with Tennis and Thee Sacred Souls
# with Los Bitchos
+ with Japanese Breakfast and Los Bitchos
Jan-11 Holland, Utrecht, Tivoli Grote Zaal
Jan-14 Germany, Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
Jan-16 Sweden, Gothenburg Tradgarn
Jan-17 Sweden, Stockholm Filadelfia
Jan-18 Norway, Oslo Sentrum Scene
Jan-19 Denmark, Copenhagen Vega
Jan-21 Germany, Berlin Tempodrom
Jan-22 Germany, Munich Muffathalle
Jan-23 Switzerland, Zurich X-tra Limmathaus
Jan-25 France, Clermont-Ferrand, Co-op de Mai
Jan-26 Italy, Milan Fabrique
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