The press release on Belle and Sebastian’s upcoming studio album, A Bit of Previous, contains an interesting line. Amid pithy observations about everyday life, the recording process and spirituality, the band tells listeners: “This is not a pandemic record.”

Perhaps, having mastered the art of singing beautifully about inertia, they’re no longer shocked by loneliness and the world falling apart.

Ever since it was formed in 1996, the Glasgow band has established itself as a bona fide indie pop legend. Its sophomore album, 1996’s If You’re Feeling Sinister, was dubbed one of the 100 best albums between 1985 and 2005 by SPIN magazine. With it came indie cred, a burgeoning place in pop culture – Barry, the music snob Jack Black portrayed in 2000’s High Fidelity famously dismissed the band as “old sad [expletive] music” – and increasing critical and commercial acclaim.

After embracing a more polished, grander sound at the turn of the millennium, albums like The Life Pursuit (2006) and Belle and Sebastian Write About Love (2010) have consistently climbed into the top 10 in the United Kingdom, powered by successful singles like “Funny Little Frog” and “I’m a Cuckoo”.

Not bad for a group of shy Scots used to singing delicately about life.

“If you said to me twenty years ago that we would show up in Indonesia and there would be a crowd to see us play, I wouldn’t believe you,” lead singer Stuart Murdoch admitted while beaming, referring to the band’s Jakarta concert in 2010.

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