Belle and Sebastian To Release <i>BBC Sessions</i>

As any Belle and Sebastian fan knows, the group have spent their fair share of time recording at the BBC. However, until now most listeners have been reduced to hearing those tracks as sub-par MP3s, which, no matter how you look at it, ain’t all that cool. Thankfully, though, Matador is finally stepping up and releasing a chunk of the Scottish popsters BBC sessions on fancy new collection, appropriately titled The BBC Sessions.

The compilation, which is due out November 18, features 14 of Belle and Seb’s BBC recordings from 1996 to 2001. Several are culled from a John Peel session in 2001 — which contains some of the band’s last recordings with former member Isobel Campbell — along with a complete Mark Radcliffe session from July 1996 and a handful from Steve Lamacq’s Evening Session show in 1997. Also, if you get in early on the collection, it comes packaged with a bonus disc of live material from a Christmas show in Belfast recorded on December 21, 2001.

On the downside, The BBC Sessions does not includd each and every Belle and Sebastian BBC session, but hopefully when the British broadcaster does finally open up those vaults you’ll be able to get your hands on some high-quality versions of those tracks as well.

Here is the tracklisting to Belle and Sebastian’s The BBC Sessions:

Disc One - Radio Sessions:

1. "The State I Am In” (Mark Radcliffe Session, ‘96)
2. "Like Dylan in the Movies” (Mark Radcliffe Session, ‘96)
3. "Judy and the Dream of Horses” (Mark Radcliffe Session, ‘96)
4. "The Stars of Track and Field” (Mark Radcliffe Session, ‘96)
5. "I Could Be Dreaming” (Mark Radcliffe session, ‘96; abbreviated version)
6. "Seymour Stein” (Evening Session, ‘97)
7. "Lazy Line Painter Jane” (Evening Session, ‘97)
8. "Sleep the Clock Around” (Evening Session, ‘97)
9. "Slow Graffiti” (Evening Session, ‘97)
10. "Wrong Love” (later recorded as "The Wrong Girl") (Evening Session, ‘97)
11. "Shoot the Sexual Athlete” (John Peel session, ‘01)
12. "The Magic of a Kind Word” (John Peel session, ‘01)
13. "Nothing in the Silence” (John Peel session, ‘01)
14. "(My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique” (John Peel session, ‘01)

Disc Two - Live in Belfast (December 21, 2001):

1. "Here Comes the Sun”
2. "There's Too Much Love”
3. "The Magic of a Kind Word”
4. "Me and the Major”
5. "Wandering Alone”
6. "The Model”
7. "I'm Waiting for the Man”
8. "The Boy With the Arab Strap”
9. "The Wrong Girl”
10. "Dirty Dream #2”
11. "The Boys Are Back in Town”
12. "Legal Man”

Belle & Sebastian "Dirty Dream #2”