The big draw of Belle And Sebastian's double CD The
BBC Sessions—the
first disc collects three full sessions of four or five songs, recorded between
1996 and 2001 for the BBC, plus a song from an unfinished session; the second
disc features a full concert recorded in Belfast—is that one of the
segments, recorded for John Peel in May 2001, consists entirely of previously
unreleased songs. For any band with as rabid and opinionated a fan base as
Belle And Sebastian's, this is a big deal. Though diehards mostly dislike the
group's work from this period (2000's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A
Peasant
is generally considered the band's nadir), these songs fit in well with the
more obviously beloved stuff surrounding them. "The Magic Of A Kind Word" is
reminiscent of buoyant British Invasion-era pop, while "(My Girl's Got)
Miraculous Technique" evokes a frazzled, rainy-day-shimmering version. That
kind of faded luster is what Belle And Sebastian do better than anything, of
course, and the rest of The BBC Sessions has it in sharper detail than some of the
band's recorded work. Diehards won't be getting rid of their copies of If
You're Feeling Sinister or The Boy With The Arab Strap anytime soon, but often
these alternate versions are tighter and zippier than the originals, which make
them a good introduction for new fans as well as welcome contrasts for
long-timers.