Maybe this is old news but at the record store I work at we called Matador and they said the new B&S will be relesed September 3rd.
In all my years of working at record stores, there was only one, ONE, record that wasn't released on a Tuesday and that was Van Halen's F.U.C.K., which was released on a Monday, and that was only because they wanted to give it an extra day of sales so it would debut at #1 (it did, if you're curious). So I'm going to tell you what I told (what feels like) millions of customers over the years: new releases, in the United States (in all 50 states at the same time, mind you), come out on TUESDAYS. Always. Unless it's an independent release, in which case it's release date is the time when the most organized member of the band manages to get it consigned. So, since we were told (we were) that the record will be released on the 7th (the 7th being a Monday, Monday being the traditional new release day in the U.K.), we could probably assume that the new B&S album will be released in the U.S. on Tuesday, the 8th of September. But I guess we'll all just have to wait until Katrina sets us straight.
As for a change in musical direction for Belle and Sebastian's new album, if you listen to _Dog on Wheels_, _Tigermilk_, and _IYFS_, the songs always sound like Stuart M's guitar with the added bits of the band.
Gotta disagree with you on the Tigermilk one there. Some songs do sound like that (Expectations), but songs like "Mary Jo" and "My Wandering Days Are Over" are practically Pet Sounds outtakes. But maybe you're not talking about production, so I'll just shut up... But it does bring up a question I've been wanting to ask...my friend and I have a theory that the reason that Tigermilk has so many more elements and instruments is because, since they weren't paying for the studio and the record release, they could take their time and produce it more, but when they got around to making IYFS, they had more budget and time constraints and therefore had to make a, um, leaner album. Is this true, or was the sparseness of IFYS an artistic decision? Which wouldn't surprise me...I think I'm the only person on this list who prefers IYFS to Tigermilk (but just barely). Beginning to worry about my cat, Reid