Wednesday, 26 February 2014

It's Bombastic

I have a very old iPod. Its contents haven't changed since about 2007. This allows me to listen to things like Ash's Intergalactic Sonic 7s, The Shins' Wincing The Night Away and Bloc Party's Silent Alarm on my way to and from work. The great thing about this is that I often listen to music that reminds me of certain things and places. I will, for instance never be able to decouple Boy Kill Boy's Civilian from my school leaving holiday to Tuscany or Razorlight's Up All Night from drinking Carling with Luke Dalton...

All this nostalgia is lovely - however, back to the matter at hand: as many of my previous post readers will be aware, I often go and get a load of new music in one go the old fashioned way - buying a physical CD.

The one that won the mini blog post is Bombay Bicycle Club's So Long See You Tomorrow.



There are few opening tracks that really set out the stall of recent albums I have listened to, other than maybe CHVRCHES (whose album The Bones Of What You Believe [which came second in the blog shortlist] opens with The Mother We Share). Overdone makes you think of the lights gradually coming up at a gig, sun meeting sky with the swagger of North London. On my first listen to the album, as Overdone's bass line kicks in, it somehow managed to make me feel like when I heard Arctic Monkeys' Brianstorm for the first time: I wanted to be at the front of a gig crowd, 18 and a bit pissed. 

The ethereal tones of Jack Steadman's lead vocals and a continuation of the sampling experimentation within the latest album provides ample purity that many other bands seem to suffer from, post "the difficult third album" (this being BBC's fourth). The album features guest vocals and produces similar haunting harmonies that became so well recognised on A Different Kind Of Fix.

My current favourite track is Home By Now, but Luna isn't far off that. The fact I can't really decide across most of the album is testament to the album's construction. 

I'm not going to give you the blow-by-blow of the album. The orchestration and world music influences really do make this album a worthwhile listen - it's Bombastic x