What To Look For In Summer

世界中のファンが熱望したベルセバ2枚組ライヴ・ベスト盤発売決定!!

グラスゴーを代表するバンド、ベル・アンド・セバスチャンが2019年のワールド・ツアーからベスト・テイクを厳選した2枚組ライヴ・ベスト・アルバム『What To Look For In Summer』をリリース!
COVID-19によって2020年のライヴだけでなく、新譜のレコーディング計画が白紙となってしまったバンドがかねてよりファンから熱望されていたライヴ作品のリリースに応える形で本プロジェクトに着手。
話題を呼んだ船上コンサート「Boaty Weekender」での3公演を含む2019年の全てのテイクを聴き返し、イエスの『Yessongs』やシン・リジーの『Live and Dangerous』などのライヴ・アルバムからインスピレーションを得て、さまざまなライヴから最高の録音を選ぶことによって2枚組のヴォリュームへと編纂された本作。
ほぼランダムな選曲だったとメンバーたちは語るが、結果として初期の「My Wandering Days Are Over」や「Seeing Other People」、「The Boy With The Arab Strap」をはじめとする人気曲、そして近年の「Poor Boy」や「We Were Beautiful」が並列されたキャリアを総括するベスト盤として、そしてステージにファンたちが上がり込んでピースフルな大団円を迎えるあの幸せな瞬間を詰め込んだ作品へと昇華。
以前は謎めいた内省的なバンドとしてデビューを果たしながらも、今となっては「ツアーは、まさか自分たちがやるとは思ってもいなかったことだ。今までの人生で経験した中で最高の経験だよ」とメンバーたちが口にする通り、この20年間で多様な音楽性と娯楽性を抱える素晴らしきライヴ・バンドへと生まれ変わったことを刻み込んだ記念碑的作品がここに誕生した。

Few indie pop bands have inspired the lasting excitement and committed fandom as Belle and Sebastian. Music defined in part by its shy, retiring character and willful obscurity doesnt usually lend itself to legions of screaming fans at sold-out theater shows, with many indie legends never moving much further than tiny club shows if they made it to the stage at all. Belle and Sebastian somehow simultaneously achieve both the insular fragility of twee indie pop and the star power required to sustain a ravenous fan base for multiple decades, presenting both in double live album What to Look for in Summer. Recorded at dates across the bands 2019 tour (including several shows on a cruise ship), this massive 23-track document is a thoughtfully considered collection of both indispensable fan favorites and less-celebrated deeper cuts. Many of the groups best-loved songs came from their earliest EPs and albums in the mid- to late 90s, and lots of those tracks are represented here. A particularly lovely rendition of Fox in the Snow from 1996s essential If Youre Feeling Sinister is a standout of the set list, and the audiences eruptions of cheering at the beginning notes of Seeing Other People and Dog on Wheels capture the mix of joy, excitement, and nostalgia that must have filled the room during these concerts. It wouldnt seem right if the band didnt play one of their most iconic songs, the title track from their 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap, and the performance here is charmingly loose, adding a drunken giddiness to the carefree energy of the song by speeding up the tempo a touch and playing around with the vocal phrasing. As nice as it is to hear fun versions of familiar songs, What to Look for in Summer peppers its track listing with unexpected selections from across the bands extensive discography. Multiple songs from 2000s Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant show up, including the inverted sunshine pop of Nice Day for a Sulk. The stellar catchiness of I Didnt See It Coming from 2010s Write About Love is a reminder how strong Belle and Sebastians songwriting and arrangement remained long after the initial fanfare of their arrival died down. Theres an irony in a double live album coming from a band who began as a recording project with no plans on ever playing in front of people. What to Look for in Summer is simply more evidence to the fact that Belle and Sebastians songs are so well made and evocative of such complex beauty, they were never going to stay contained in the lonely bedrooms and limited-edition releases they started from. ~ Fred Thomas