Belle And Sebastian To Record Eurovision-Inspired New Album

new album is set to be released this year, and according to frontman Stuart Murdoch the record will be inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest.

Murdoch spoke to Rolling Stone shortly after airing his ‘God Help the Girl’ film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. He confirmed the band had been writing in Glasgow, with intentions to go into the studio in March. Stuart claimed the band ‘will have failed’ if the record isn’t out by autumn.

About the record’s concept, Stuart said: ‘Abba won in 1974, and that’s how they got their big break. And that was really the last great song from Eurovision.

‘Since then it’s been kind of a train wreck, but it gives you a window into every little country, and it’s the only time that Europe gets together for this big party, and now, especially now, we have all the Russian block, eastern block countries, it’s all shifted to the East. So in a sense, I remember saying to the band, I want to do an album that one song feels like it could be the Cyprus entry for 1974. And then next song would be the German entry for 1989, or something like that. You might not see that in the finished songs, but somewhere that’s been an inspiration.’