Belle And Sebastian complete album

Belle & Sebastian have finished their new album, which is due early in 2006.

The band have spent the last few months in Los Angeles' Sunset Sound studios with Beck producer Tony Hoffer working on the record.

Singer Stuart Murdoch told NME the seven-piece group threw out their regular instruments as part of the writing process for the follow-up to 2003's 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress'.

He revealed: "The process of making the record has been amazing. The last record had quite a few older songs on it because we were working with Trevor (Horn) and we wanted to give them a proper go with big arrangements. This record is all new songs â€" 18 of them â€" so it's all very current. It's us pretty much writing in a circle and writing within the group."

Working titles include 'Song For Sunshine' , 'Funny Little Frog' , 'Sukie In The Graveyard' , 'Another Sunny Day' , 'Act Of The Apostle Part I' and 'A White Collared Boy' on the final tracklisting.document.write(unescape("