Watch Belle and Sebastian’s Wistful New Video for “We Were Beautiful”

As M.T. Richards writes in our review of 2010’s iconic Write About Love, Belle and Sebastian write songs of “wounded introverts looking for healing, one wistful melody at a time.”

While a lot has changed since then (a documentary, a second compilation album, an NME Award in 2014, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance in 2015 and leaving their drummer in a Walmart parking lot on tour), the band manages, in the new video for summer single “We Were Beautiful,” to make sadness and joy a seamless interchange on a Saturday morning. Above the city of Glasgow, above triumphant synths and trumpet, omniscient narrator/frontman Stuart Murdoch sings, “Rise above the present day / rise above the popular melee.”

“We Were Beautiful” is written in the past tense, but the subject matter in the film feels like the realest possible iteration of an iPhone commercial—relevant and present. There is both blankness and beauty, as Murdoch sings, in getting older and wiser.

Check out the video and Belle and Sebastian’s newly announced European tour dates below, and follow along with the band here.

Belle and Sebastian 2018 Tour Dates:

February
05 – Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
06 – Strasbourg, France @ La Laiterie
07 – Paris, France @ Salle Pleyel
09 – Nantes, France @ Stereolox 
11 – Luxembourg @ Rockhal
12 – Zurich, Switzerland @ X tra limmathaus
13 – Milan. Italy @ Fabrique
14 – Bologna, Italy @ Estragon
16 – Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle
17 – Berlin @ Admiralspalast 
18 – Frankfurt @ Batschkapp
19 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Carre
21 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ DK Studio 1
22 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Munchen Brewery
22 – Oslo, Norway @ Sentrum Scene 
24 – Gothenburg, Sweden @ Studios

March
06 – Cornwall, U.K. @ Truro Hall 
08 – Cardiff, Wales @ Millenium Centre 
09 – Aberystwyth, Wales @ Arts Centre
10 – Nottingham, U.K. @ Rock City
12 – Manchester, U.K. @ Bridgewater Hall 
13 – Cambridge, U.K. @ Corn Exchange
15 – Brighton, U.K. @ Dome
16 – London, U.K. @ Troxy
17 – London, U.K. @ Troxy
19 – Liverpool, U.K. @ Philharmonic 
20 – York, U.K. @ Opera House
22 – Gateshead, U.K. @ Sage
23 – Perth, Scotland @ Concert Hall
24 – Edinburgh, Scotland @ Usher Hall
26 – Dublin, Ireland@ Vicar St
27 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar St