IT has been more than a decade since Bombay Bicycle Club shook up the indie world with the release of their debut I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose.
Now, after what seemed an interminable six-year hiatus, the band who took their name from a London curry house, are back.
New album Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, will be released tomorrow – their first since their chart-topping, Mercury Music Prize nominated fourth LP, So Long, See You Tomorrow, released back in 2014.
The new album was largely recorded out in the US alongside Grammy Award winning producer John Congleton (St. Vincent/Sharon Van Etten/War on Drugs).
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It features the band’s euphoric new single Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You). The tune encapsulates all the ingredients that made the Crouch End group so popular before their self-imposed disappearance. Recorded at London’s KONK Studio with producer John Congleton, it’s heavy on both melody and rhythm. The video was directed by Louis Bhose, the band’s former touring keyboardist who has gone on to shoot videos for Michael Kiwanuka, Lewis Capaldi and Loyle Carner.
Of the record’s title, the band said: “This is an album for anyone who’s ever turned to music in a time of crisis, whether personal or political.
“It’s about the solace one can get from listening to music or playing music when everything else has gone wrong. It’s about finding kernels of hope and renewal in dire situations.”
Bombay Bicycle Club have continued to grow, develop and evolve since the release of their 2009 debut and have been warmly welcomed back to the fold.
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Having played Wilderness festival at Cornbury Park, Charlbury, last summer, the band return to our county for a show at the O2 Academy Oxford on Saturday.
The intimate gig will be a stripped back affair without the band’s full production.
“Playing together again is such an unexpected surprise for the four of us and yet from the first moment we started rehearsing it felt as natural as if we’d played a show the night before. We feel a freshness playing live and in the studio that I think can only come from having taken a step back and now we just want to play these new songs to as many people in as many countries as we can”, says Jack.
What's the album like? Review:
BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB: EVERYTHING ELSE HAS GONE WRONG
After a half-decade hiatus, London’s indie rock quartet are back.
With crashing drums and atmospheric synth from the off in opening number Get Up and title track Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, this is a quirky album of entertainment and intrigue on first listening and joy thereafter.
Pleasing guitar riffs, epitomised in Is It Real and Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You), along with pronounced, rumbling bass and experimental electronic themes offer a rich breadth of sounds. From loud beginnings to the album’s gradual, softer conclusion, Racing Stripes, frontman Jack Steadman’s distinctive vocals guide you through.
It will grow on you if you give it a chance.
8/10
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