I've heard a lot of 'fans' complain about the descent of Biffy Clyro on their fourth LP Puzzle in 2007, a lot of comments about sugar coating their sound to make it easy for the mainstream to swallow. Well, to those fans who hated them for making a marketably fun breed of hard rock-stay the hell away from this.
Upon hearing the badass, anthemic "Wolves of Winter" complete with the arena filling choruses from Simon Neil, I was all in on this LP (as if I wasn't before buying #superfan). But that seems to be the only place such gritty energy really shows its face. I mean, "Animal Style" has its edge, but it still feels forced. The rest of this LP floats between the most accessible dad rock with weird lyrics to odd country-ish, to blah. None of it is offensively bad, it's just a few steps too far down the 'consumable' rabbit hole. And that's a style choice by the band, and it's not for me.
I am in no way turning my back on these guys or even this album, I'll probably give it way too many more spins trying to wrap my head around it. I'll let you guys know if the repeated listens change my mind.
By: DWinch
Elipsis is the seventh studio album by the Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro. The band took 2015 as a "year off" from public appearances, as they did not want fans to tire of seeing them, although they did play a one off show as the headline act in Edinburgh's Hogmanay Concert in the Gardens, where they debuted a new song "On a Bang". The band recorded the majority of the album in Burbank, California following drummer Ben Johnston's claims that they would visit somewhere "exotic" to record it as a change of pace from their home country of Scotland. The band took a similar approach in 2012 while working on the previous record, travelling to West Los Angeles, California to record the majority of the album. In January 2016, the band discussed the album with NME, calling it the "best record we've made", and revealing John Waters and hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky as influences of the sound of the new music.
A1 Wolves Of Winter
A2 Friends and Enemies
A3 Animal Style
A4 Re-arrange
A5 Herex
A6 Medicine
B1 Flammable
B2 On a Bang
B3 Small Wishes
B4 Howl
B5 People
Catalogue No. 0190295972806
14th Floor Records / Warner