Belle and Sebastian are starting the year on a high by announcing a surprise new album ‘Late Developers’ to be released this Friday, 13th January. First single “I Don’t Know What You See In Me” can be heard now; an 80’s-nodding banger and one of the band’s most unabashedly infectious pop offerings to date. It is also their first co-write, featuring young pop composer Pete Ferguson. Watch here:
Frontman Stuart Murdoch said, “I was bicycling across Scotland last summer, listening to a mix of this song. It was written and produced for us by our friend Pete ‘Wuh Oh’ Ferguson. As I listened to it, I felt lucky to be the first person to get to sing this song. I let my voice swoop and soar in ways that it maybe hasn’t before. And as I continued through fields of gold and green I allowed myself to forget it was Belle And Sebastian, and pretend it was the latest hit on some random radio station. All music is escape, and perhaps we managed to escape a little further than usual with this unexpected tune.“
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”)., Late Developers is decidedly not a collection of outtakes or B-sides, but a completely new standalone album.
Jeff Rosenstock said, “Recorded in the same sessions as A Bit of Previous, Late Developers doesn’t feel like a collection of lesser-than songs that weren’t good enough to go on the “real” record (I’m looking at you, System of a Down’s Hypnotize!). Rather, it’s an embrace of the freedom that comes with a jumbo-sized canvas, skilled students left unsupervised to paint whatever picture they feel like.”
Pre-order Late Developers here: https://belleandsebastian. ffm.to/late-developers
TRACKLIST
1. Juliet Naked
2. Give A Little Time
3. When We Were Very Young
4. Will I Tell You A Secret
5. So In The Moment
6. The Evening Star
7. When You’re Not With Me
8. I Don’t Know What You See In Me
9. Do You Follow
10. When The Cynics Stare Back From The Wall
11. Late Developers
