Various – Late Night Tales: Belle and Sebastian Vol. 2

In a 26-part history, Belle and Sebastian are only the second act to add a volume 2 to their Late Night Tales mix, and as before, they’ve cultivated something with appeal that far extends their core fan-base. With five of the gang contributing, the results are eclectic to say the least, and while an effort has been made to sequence coherently, some delightfully incongruous transitions remain (the segueing of Ce’cile’s strutting dancehall into Remember Remember’s delicately beautiful Scottish Widows is one such volte-face).

The genre-switching continues with their contractual cover version, in which the band play the tracklisting’s sole salute to the indie-pop realm from whence they came (The Primitives’ Crash) with a bossa nova swing, slotting in smoothly between a soulful Lovin’ Spoonful cut and Roland Vincent’s swinging LSD Partie. It might seem premature, but go on Late Night Tales, gie them a third crack; they’re rather good at this.