Belle and Sebastian’s 12th studio album stands out for its cohesion as an upbeat, pop-forward release with nary a slow song in sight.
By now, most listeners know what a Belle and Sebastian album is going to sound like. Late Developers is their 12th studio release, and the mild-mannered Glaswegian indie rockers don’t throw any major curveballs with the sound they’ve developed since 1996. It’s also been less than a year since the band released their 11th album A Bit of Previous, which was recorded at the same time and is stylistically quite similar. As far as indie bands go, Belle and Sebastian are more from the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” school alongside Spoon and Band of Horses than the “constantly reinventing ourselves” approach of Beck and Destroyer.
Where Late Developers does stand out is its cohesion as an upbeat, pop-forward album with nary a slow song in sight. While the band’s earlier albums started with frontman Stuart Murdoch singing in a diminutive, whisper-like tone with equally muted sonic palettes to match, this album is bursting at the seams with confidence and jubilation. From the jangle pop guitar hooks of the opening track “Juliet Naked” to the tropical horns and gospel choir on the closing title track, Belle and Sebastian never let up on Late Developers.
Now, most of Late Developers will sound quite familiar to those who have followed Belle and Sebastian on their almost three-decade journey. The Sarah Martin-fronted “Give a Little Time” has the same charged-up electric guitar lines that made “We Are the Sleepyheads” a standout on 2006’s The Life Pursuit, and uses copious handclaps to really hammer in the pep. Relatedly, “The Evening Star” has horns and a soul-inspired style just like the single “Funny Little Frog” from that same 17-year old album. “Will I Tell You a Secret” is a baroque pop masterpiece, with strings and the same harpsichord sounds the band first used 23 years ago on Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. “So in the Moment” is a fast-paced track where Stevie Jackson takes the lead, just like “I’m Not Living in the Real World” from 2010’s Write About Love. Even if you’re hearing echoes of past Belle and Sebastian throughout Late Developers, it’s more likely to arouse a feeling of nostalgia rather than disappointment.
Meanwhile, “Do You Follow” does a much better job of incorporating dance music elements, and features Murdoch and Martin switching off vocal duties to add to its intrigue. “When the Cynics Stare Back from the Wall” is a good song to start, but really hits its stride when it introduces a guest verse by Camera Obsuca’s Tracyanne Campbell. It’s honestly hard to think of a band more similar to Belle and Sebastian than Camera Obscura—both are indie pop acts from Glasgow that were big in the 2000s—and Campbell’s presence fits like a glove here. The album also has some uncharacteristically blunt vocals, like on “When We Were Very Young.” Here, we find Murdoch wishing he would find contentment in the mundanity of “football scores” and “daily scores.” Instead, he recalls his carefree youth (“When we were very young, we loved our selfish fun”) and bleakly acknowledges his life status with the line, “now we’ve got kids and dystopia.”
The close release dates of A Bit of Previous and Late Developers make comparisons between the two inevitable. Of the two, Late Developers is more likely to leave the stronger impression, and distinguishes itself in the band’s voluminous catalogue by keeping the BPM high. There are unfortunately no extended pop tracks like “Enter Sylvia Plath” or “Play for Today” from Girls for Peacetime Want to Dance, and “I Don’t Know What You See in Me” doesn’t reach the highs of the band’s past singles. It’s more of a pop triumph when the album is considered as a whole, and will surely remind you of why Belle and Sebastian are one of the most endearing indie rock bands.
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