Additional personnel: Monica Queen, Rozanne Suarez (vocals); Judy Mitchell (oboe); Louise Bennie (saxophone); Ronan Breslin (trombone); Jonny Quinn (congas); Laura Molloy (percussion).

Belle & Sebastian never felt tied down to the album as the ultimate expression of a band's worth. Put simply, they didn't feel the need to hold back their best songs for albums; the fourth song on a four-song EP was just as likely to be among their finest as any other. For proof check out Push Barman to Open New Wounds, a handy compilation of the group's EPs recorded between 1997 and 2001 for Jeepster and Matador. Beginning with "Dog on Wheels" all the way through, the band used its EPs as means of exploring new sounds and angles (check the groovy '60s spy song "Legal Man," the epic in length and scope "This Is Just a Modern Love Song," the bubbly sunshine pop of "I Love My Car," or the silly instrumental "Judy Is a Dick Slap") as well as an outlet for great songs that wouldn't fit on albums, like "Slow Graffiti," "A Century of Fakers," and "Lazy Line Painter Jane." Some of the tracks here would be pillars on a B&S greatest-hits compilation too; fantastic songs like "Dog on Wheels," "The State I Am In," "I'm Waking Up to Us," and "Put the Book Back on the Shelf." Push Barman to Open New Wounds is essential listening, the third disc you should get by the band behind If You're Feeling Sinister and Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Even if you already have all the EPs, you'll want to get this disc. It is reasonable priced, housed in the usual attractive package, and hearing all the songs back to back reinforces what an amazing group Belle & Sebastian were and are. [The disc also comes in a deluxe package, though all that means is that instead of a jewel case it comes in a hardcover book-style jacket.] ~ Tim Sendra

Those prolific Scots of Belle & Sebastian released a bounty of non-album tracks across several EPs between 1997 and 2001, and they're all gathered together for the first time on PUSH BARMAN TO OPEN OLD WOUNDS. What's most shocking is that the bulk of these cuts are fully as memorable as anything on the group's proper albums.

As with Belle & Sebastian's better-known material, the songs on PUSH BARMAN are a gorgeously melodic, wistful blend of '60s pop and '80s twee, contrasted brilliantly by some of the most sardonic, bitingly ironic lyrics this side of Morrissey. There are a few relative anomalies (the Joe Meek-meets-synth-pop instrumental "Judy Is a Dick Slap," the epic-length "This Is Just a Modern Rock Song"), but nearly all the tracks here are in the classic B&S mode. Leader Stuart Murdoch's wonderfully idiosyncratic lyrical outlook provides for such unusual pop moments as the retirement-party office drama of "Take Your Carriage Clock and Shove It" and the communist-femme snapshot of "Marx & Engels," all framed with an almost shockingly infectious tunefulness that marks Belle & Sebastian as true pop subversives.