“I didn’t think after 20 years I’d be right back in the self-same places,” sings frontman Stuart Murdoch on Sweet Dew Lee, the opening track on the 10th album from Belle and Sebastian. And there’s certainly a sense of deja vu to proceedings. In 1997, when their star was firmly in the ascendant, the Glaswegian indie paragons released three beguiling EPs that were subsequently re-released as a box set. This time they’ve released three EPs since December, which are now cobbled together as an ill-fitting album.
The band’s palette might be far broader than it was 20 years ago – the bouncing disco of The Girl Doesn’t Get It contrasting nicely with the stripped-back balladry of There Is an Everlasting Song. But stretched across 15 tracks and almost 70 minutes, the highlights are spread too thinly, the likes of Show Me the Sun and Cornflakes mired in mediocrity. There’s unevenness within these overlong songs too: We Were Beautiful’s majestic chorus is offset by an uneventful verse; Everything Is Now would work well as a brief interlude, but loses its charm well before the five-minute mark. A single EP might have been more effective.
