Album Review: Belle And Sebastian – Days Of The Bagnold Summer OST


Days Of the Bagnold Summer



For a band that waited so long to work on a soundtrack, Glaswegian stalwarts Belle And Sebastian now have the bit in their teeth.

Following Stuart Murdoch’s efforts on 2014’s God Help The Girl, Days Of Bagnold Summer’s release constitutes another prominent career landmark. It was the film’s director Simon Bird that approached the septet not only as a long-standing fan, but in the belief that they were best placed to synergise with the film’s bittersweet narrative arc.

Based on Joff Winterheart’s disarmingly simple and touching graphic novel, Murdoch made use of a unique brand of access to the director’s inner thoughts, working on material even before shooting had started. It was a relationship which suited both parties; the cinematic equivalent of a crate digger, Bird was insistent on the inclusion of Get Me Away From Here (I’m Dying) from their 1996 album If You’re Feeling Sinister, the similarly vintage I Know Where The Summer Goes, and Safety Valve, which had never previously even been released.

Bird confirms in these picks that he’s an astute judge of tone and fit as this trio of songs prove to be some of the album’s most effective moments, the latter a more than worthy addition to a vast repertoire which under this sort of scrutiny proves surprisingly useful for the task in hand. On refection, this is probably unsurprising for a band whose default mode is, as co-writer Sarah Martin puts it, to ‘make devastating songs that sound quite happy’.

This kind of intrigue wouldn’t though have suited a story which lays deep in the subtle filigrees of people and the constantly unfinished jigsaws of their relationships. It brings a different challenge, one in part for conveying threads by three very different instrumentals, from the melancholy reel of Jill Pole, The Colour’s Gonna Run’s hazy washes and the lilting, excerpt rich closer We Were Never Glorious.

Other times by contrast, however, they’re in almost full flight, especially on the tender Did The Day Go Just Like You Wanted? and Sister Buddha, the latter of which Murdoch has revealed being a theme tune of sorts.

So, is this a soundtrack album or an album album? The answer, perhaps unhelpfully, is it’s both or either depending on your mood. The often-stated problem with accompanying films is that most of the listeners never set the music in the visual context in which it’s meant to be seen, like reaching out for something in the dark. There’s certainly less bounce or intrigue here than was heard on 2018’s life affirming How To Solve Our Human Problems (Parts 1-3), but Days Of The Bagnold Summer is still instantly recognisable as a Belle And Sebastian album, with all the baggage that entails.

Ultimately, the filmmaker’s status as a scholarly fan proves to be a double-edged sword: any creative tension Murdoch and co. may have fed off is lacking, and throughout the band seem to be playing within themselves, whether consciously or not.

The soundtrack medium by definition allows writers the latitude to confound their supporters, but it’s an opportunity spurned here as this batch of accomplished but hardly ground-breaking tunes always satisfies but rarely thrills.



7/10

(Andy Peterson)


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