Belle And Sebastian delivered a four-song set for the latest edition of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series – watch it below.

The veteran indie-pop septet played ‘Unnecessary Drama’, ‘Working Boy In New York City’ and ‘Reclaim the Night’, all of which appear on their latest album, ‘A Bit Of Previous’.

They ended the set with a performance of ‘Judy And The Dream of Horses’, taken from their second album, ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Speaking about the performance, Tiny Desk host and producer Bob Boilen said: “You see, we don’t amplify the singer’s voice in the room, and we don’t use monitor speakers. It all adds to the intimacy of the performance, but it also made it hard for Stuart Murdoch to hear himself sing.”

He continued: “In fact, he began to question whether having an ensemble of drums, keyboards, guitars, bass, etc. was right for the Tiny Desk and considered scrapping it all in favor of him and a guitar and maybe another player. But with a little work on the overall volume of the band, some run-throughs and the creature comfort of a handheld microphone, the band from Glasgow was charming and magnificent.”

You can check out the performance below:

 

Belle And Sebastian are currently on an extensive tour across the US in support of ‘A Bit Of Previous’ and will tour the UK later this year, with European dates to follow in 2023. You can buy any remaining tickets here and here.

Their British dates, rescheduled from earlier-announced shows for the spring, are as follows:

NOVEMBER 2022

13 – Cardiff, Great Hall – Student’s Union
14 – London, The Roundhouse
15 – London, The Roundhouse
17 – Sheffield, O2 Academy
18 – Liverpool, Olympia
19 – Hull, Asylum, Hull University Union
21 – Aberdeen, Beach Ballroom
23 – Edinburgh, Usher Hall
24 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, O2 City Hall
25 – Manchester, Academy
27 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
28 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
29 – Southampton, O2 Guildhall
30 – Brighton, Dome

In a four-star review of ‘A Bit Of Previous’, NME‘s Gary Ryan wrote: “‘A Bit Of Previous’ takes its album title from the Buddhist notion of reincarnation – that you may already have ‘previous’ with people you meet – and there’s a similarly comforting familiarity to the album. All of the well-worn Belle and Sebastian hallmarks are present, but what’s truly impressive is how effortless it all sounds this time around.”