Signed to Jeepster Recordings in 1996, during their 18 year career Belle & Sebastian have released eleven albums. In advance of the release of their next record (due on Matador Records in 2015) Jeepster Recordings and Rough Trade Records will be collaborating on a vinyl reissue series of all eleven titles promoted under the banner ‘It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career’. From the October 6th launch date of the series vinyl copies of the albums will, for the first time, include a download card with a code for a free digital copy of the entire album and all the LPs will be packaged in high quality pvc sleeves with an individual ‘It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career’ obi strip to highlight the campaign branding. ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ was the band’s first release on Jeepster.

Belle & Sebastian’s second record, If You’re Feeling Sinister, is, for all intents and purposes, really their first, since their debut in 1996 was not heard outside of privileged inner circles. And If You’re Feeling Sinister really did have quite a bit of an impact upon its release in 1996, largely because during the first half of the ’90s the whimsy and preciousness that had been an integral part of alternative music was suppressed by grunge. Whimsy and preciousness are an integral part of If You’re Feeling Sinister, along with clever wit and gentle, intricate arrangements — a wonderful blend of the Smiths and Simon & Garfunkel, to be reductive. Even if it’s firmly within the college, bed-sit tradition, and is unabashedly retrogressive, that gives Sinister a special, timeless character that’s enhanced by Stuart Murdoch’s wonderful, lively songwriting. Blessed with an impish sense of humor, a sly turn of phrase, and an alluringly fey voice, he gives this record a real sense of backbone, in that its humor is far more biting than the music appears and the music is far more substantial that it initially seems. Sinister plays like a great forgotten album, couched in ’80s indie, ’90s attitude, and ’60s folk-pop. It’s beautifully out of time, and even if other Belle & Sebastian albums sound like it, this is where they achieved a sense of grace. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Red Vinyl.