Album Review: Days of the Bagnold Summer OST by Belle and Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian have soundtracked so many real-life depressed teenagerhoods that they practically invented the genre of "songs to stare out car windows to." This is probably why, in their 23-year tenure as indie-pop royalty, so many movies and TV shows have relied on their songs, from Juno to High Fidelity to "The O.C." and "Gilmore Girls" and beyond. Their original film soundtrack Days of the Bagnold Summer will feel familiar to anyone who's heard the band underscore a dreamy montage sequence. The film, an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name from rookie director and Inbetweeners star Simon Bird, stars Earl Cave (son of Nick Cave) as a teen equally obsessed with metal and moping in the bathtub.

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Belle and Sebastian's quiveringly earnest brand of indie pop has been the soundtrack of enough coming-of-age moments (both on screen and otherwise) that this, their soundtrack to the titular film Days of the Bagnold Summer, doesn't come as a particular surprise. It's warm, it's lush, and it's pretty unambitious—all the standard trappings of a release like this. The film, directed by The Inbetweeners alum Simon Bird, tackles the strains summer places on the relationship between single mother Sue, and her thrash metal loving 15-year-old son.

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Days of the Bagnold Summer is Belle & Sebastian's soundtrack for Simon Bird's 2019 cinematic adaptation of Joff Winterhart's 2012 graphic novel. The band was hired by the director during a period when leader Stuart Murdoch was revisiting some of his older songs, so these tunes anchor the soundtrack album. "Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying" and "I Know Where the Summer Goes" are re-recorded for the film, while "Safety Valve" dates from 1993, when Belle & Sebastian wasn't a going concern.

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