VARIOUS ARTISTS - LATENIGHTTALES : BELLE & SEBASTIAN (2LP) VINYL

Plenty of bands talk about going their own sweet way, pleasing themselves and ploughing their own furrow, but it's hard to think of any working band or artist who opens themselves up as resolutely as Belle And Sebastian. Never tied to any scene in the first place (and still further out on a limb ten years later), these Glaswegians seem to have developed as a band that can draw influence from just about anywhere. And when there are seven distinctly individual personalities feeding the creative fire within the results are multifarious and often surprising.

Pure pop, Sixties psyche, Seventies rock, West Coast harmonies, beat groups, folk balladering, punk, indie, girl groups and bossanova, are just a few of the slants to crop up without musical contradiction within the Belles own work. So it is perhaps less than surprising that their choices for Late Night Tales comprehensively cover the waterfront.

Just who chose what is never expressly made clear, but what is presented is a treasure trove of musical nuggets, some in the public domain, but often lovingly disinterred specially for the purpose and certainly never put together quite like this. Ladies and Gentleman, we give you, Belle And Sebastian's Late Night Tales. 

It also features the next spoken word instalment by David Shrigley!