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Oct 27, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Will Byington Belle and Sebastian

Scotland’s Belle and Sebastian have announced a new live album, What to Look for in Summer, and have shared videos for two tracks from it, live versions of “The Boy With the Arab Strap” and “My Wandering Days Are Over.” The album is not the document of one concert, instead the tracks are culled from various shows in their summer 2019 tour, including their “Boaty Weekender” floating festival. The two videos don’t actually feature live footage. The video for “The Boy With the Arab Strap” features the band around Glasgow and the one for “My Wandering Days Are Over” is black & white and features a couple wandering a city. Watch both below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

“We’d been badgered by our fan base to put out recordings of the shows,” frontman Stuart Murdoch says in a press release, explaining why they started recording their 2019 tour.

With their 2020 touring plans cancelled due to COVID-19, and the recording of a new album in Los Angeles also off, the band busied themselves putting together the live album.

“It was something to focus on,” says the band’s Stevie Jackson. “That was very, very nice.”

“It was quite nice to be doing that when we couldn’t even see each other,” adds the band’s Sarah Martin.

While Belle and Sebastian fans, when polled on Twitter by Murdoch, said they preferred live albums documenting a single concert, the band decided to take inspiration from live albums featuring tracks from different shows, such as Yes’ Yessongs and Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous.

“For a while, the working title of the record was Live and Meticulous,” Murdoch says. “The record company really wanted it to be called Live and Meticulous. But I don’t like derivative things really.”

In late 2017 and early 2018 Belle and Sebastian released three interconnected EPs via Matador, all titled How to Solve Your Human Problems. How to Solve Your Human Problems Part 1 came out in December 2017, Part 2 came out in January 2018, and Part 3 came out in February 2018. Then all three EPs were collected in a vinyl box set and CD compilation that also came out in February 2018. In 2019 they released the soundtrack for the indie film Days of the Bagnold Summer.

Read our interview with Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch on How to Solve Your Human Problems.

Read our review of How to Solve Your Human Problems.

Read our interview with Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch on Days of the Bagnold Summer.

What to Look for in Summer Tracklist:

1. The Song of The Clyde £ >
2. Dirty Dream Number Two *
3. Step Into My Office, Baby *
4. We Were Beautiful +
5. Seeing Other People %
6. If She Wants Me @
7. Beyond The Sunrise &
8. Wrapped Up In Books +
9. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John $
10. Nice Day For A Sulk (digital only) #
11. I Can See Your Future *
12. Funny Little Frog ^
13. The Fox In The Snow+
14. If You’re Feeling Sinister*
15. My Wandering Days Are Over*
16. The Wrong Girl #
17. Stay Loose%
18. The Boy Done Wrong Again #
19. Poor Boy%
20. Dog On Wheels%
21. The Boy With The Arab Strap+
22. I Didn’t See It Coming+
23. Belle And Sebastian #

£ recorded Banchory Studios, Glasgow, August 6th, 2020 (digital version)
> recorded by Kenneth McKellar (vinyl + CD versions)
* The Boaty Weekender, August 10th, 2019
+ Royal Oak Theatre, Michigan, July 21st, 2019
% Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, July 12th, 2019
# House Of Blues, Boston, MA, July 13th, 2019
^ M-Telus, Montreal, QC, July 15th, 2019
@ Carnegie Hall - Pittsburgh, PA, July 18th, 2019
& House Of Blues, Cleveland, OH, July 19th, 2019
$ Auditoria Baluarte, Pamplona, Barcelona, November 4th, 2019

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