Belle And Sebastian
The BBC Sessions/Live In Belfast
Matador

I haven’t really listened to Belle and Sebastian since the late 90s; they got a bit overexposed and I was part of the “meh”-mumbling backlash. But I don’t discredit them at all. I rather enjoy their early records and I was very happy to find that The BBC Sessions plays more like a greatest hits than a live collection.

The first disc, Radio Sessions, is a compilation of unreleased recordings from between 1996 and 2001; also the last to feature ex-cellist and vocalist Isobel Campbell. It’s been so long since I’ve heard Isobel’s soft, dewey vocals next to founder Stuart Murdoch’s twee, nasally expressionisms; it made me dig out my copy of the band’s second record and personal favorite, The Boy With The Arab Strap.

The second half – Live in Belfast - is what you’d expect – a live recording from a performance in Belfast on December 21^st, 2001. It includes covers of The Beatles staple “Here Comes The Sun”, The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For The Man” and hard rockers Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town”. The band hardly plays live, so don’t think you’ll hear the same versions of your old favorites. You’ll be surprised throughout the 12 tracks.

This is a great starting point for new listeners, and worthwhile for old ones who remember why they liked this band in the first place. Recommended for any indie rocker’s stocking or Hanukah spoiling this holiday season.

Coldplay
Prospekt’s March
EMI

Like many Coldplay fans, I have been a bit put off by the happy, colorful direction in which vocalist Chris Martin has taken his band, seemingly since his marriage to actress Gwenyth Paltrow. X and Y seemed too polished and lush to be from this little Parachutes band of yore. Gone were the earnest songs that craned our necks to the heavens, look at the stars, and “See how they shine for us.” Instead, Coldplay somehow became more akin to a U2-styled stadium-rock type of entity – a perpetual self-parody, confirmed again as such with the release of their fourth studio album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.

But now Coldplay are back roughly five months after the release of Viva La Vida with Prospekt’s March - an EP of songs that weren’t ready for Viva’s initial release, and one that shows glimmers of the band they used to be.

Sure, there’s a bit of the old-hat remix, re-visioning that’s simply fodder for triple-A radio – like “Lost”, which features a rap verse by Jay-Z amongst bigger drum beats and loops.

But the EP’s title track, “Prospekt’s March/Poppyfields” had my jaw drop as I heard Martin ache and coo, “Here I lie, in a separate sky” – it’s like hearing a ghost. It also sounds like things might not be all that well in paradise. It’s this song that has me crossing my fingers that Coldplay can do another Parachutes, or perhaps even something like A Rush of Blood To The Head.

Also of note is the EP’s second track, “Postcards From Far Away”. All 48 seconds of the song are used very deliberately and effectively. The short piano coda drips with such melancholy that you can almost hear Martin’s heart tremble.

Prospekt’s March sounds like a band remembering; now I’m really hoping they don’t forget.