Group therapy in Glasgow keeps the music moving in Belle and Sebastian’s new video, ‘Unnecessary Drama’. The band returns to form with this barn-burner of a song from their first full-length album in seven years titled ‘A Bit of Previous’. Under the watchful eye of a therapist, the members of the group are seen struggling through rehearsal and a number of trust-building exercises until they finally align and bring it all home during the final chorus. (Some additional harmonica-related therapy may be needed.)
The band had planned on recording their new material in Los Angeles in the sprint of 2020 but those plans were scrapped as the pandemic unfolded across the globe. This made their new Matador Records release ‘A Bit of Previous’ the first record the band had made entirely in Scotland since 1999’s ‘Fold Your Hands Child’. The change of plans seems to have inspired the influence of a global lockdown to seep into the lyrics.
“The song is about a young person experimenting in being a human again after a forced hiatus,”, says frontman Stuart Murdoch. “ The person is weighing up whether or not it’s worth the mess! Still, you dip your toe in and it becomes delicious, and you get too much of it. Between trouble and nothing, we still choose trouble.”
Following the May 6th release of the new album, Belle and Sebastian have an extensive tour of the U.S., U.K., and Europe scheduled for later this year.
