Belle And Sebastian: The BBC Sessions

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.