Belle and Sebastian share How to Solve Our Human Problems — Part 2: Stream

Belle and Sebastian are back today with the second EP in their new three-part series, How to Solve Our Human Problems. Subscribers of Apple Music and Spotify can hear it in full below.

Like Part 1, this latest collection spans five tracks, including titles like “Show Me the Sun”, “A Plague on All Other Boys”, and the previously shared “I’ll Be Your Pilot”. According to frontman Stuart Murdoch, the EP series is the Scottish band’s way of dealing with all the negativity in the world.

“It’s so easy to get up and condemn this politician or that act. But now I have this intrinsic notion that anger is a bad thing. So how do you respond to what’s happening in the world? What’s happening in the world has always happened. There’s always been cause to be angry. So let’s consider not being angry.”

In an interview with Stereogum, Murdoch discussed why the band decided to release a series of EPs instead of just one full-length album:

“There was a number of reasons. One was that, I guess when the last LP came out… I think these days when an LP comes out, it’s kind of disappointing. Nothing seems to happen, and I thought, “we’ve got to do something different.” I hate just to tread water. I’ve been in this business now for 20 years, surely we can use our heads and do something that’s a bit more interesting that might actually pique some interest. But, you know, the main reason is musical, it’s about ideas. The main thing was just to come back to Glasgow and record in Glasgow for the first time in about a dozen years and also to sort of produce the record ourselves, and also to record in a different way, to go into the studio with a track barely written and, a little bit like James Brown’s style, just get the band in when you have a song and find a small studio that’s free and just go in there and throw it down. That was really different to the last four LPs, which have all been written and rehearsed and then recorded with one producer over an intense period of six weeks.”

The third EP of How to Solve will arrive on February 16th. All three will also be collected in a 12-inch vinyl box and compilation CD set for the same date. You can pre-order it here.

Belle and Sebastian’s last proper full-length came in 2015 with Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.

How to Solve Our Human Problems — Part 2 EP Artwork:

How to Solve Our Human Problems — Part 2 Tracklist:
01. Show Me the Sun
02. Same Star
03. I’ll Be Your Pilot
04. Cornflakes
05. A Plague on All Other Boys