THE PRESS RELEASE
“Bombay Bicycle Club’s fifth album Everything Else Has Gone Wrong is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the British band’s acclaimed number 1 charting, Mercury Music Prize nominated fourth album, 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). About 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 debut album, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, back in 2009 when they signalled their arrival as young teenagers. Rarely in recent years has there been a British guitar band who have the craft and ability to avoid categorisation whilst uniting hundreds of thousands of fans across the globe. With an innate ear for melody and invention, the four-piece are a very welcome return to the fold just as British guitar music makes a timely renaissance.”
MY TWO CENTS
If it’s not too personal a question: What exactly do you want from your pop-rock playlist? Conviction? Urgency? Blood on the tracks? Come on, don’t be shy. Tell you what: I’ll go first. What really floats my boat are songs that seize you by the throat with their stiletto-sharp talons, shake you violently to your quivering mush-core, make you rethink the world and your place in it, and dump you by the side of the road spent, soiled and satisfied, yet strangely hungry for another go-round ASAP. You looking for a little of that mojo too? Well, bully for you, bubba. Trouble is, you have come to the exactly wrong place is that’s what you’re hoping to find between the covers of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Everything Else Has Gone Wrong. These British featherweights’ fifth full-length unequivocally and abso-toot-ly offers none of the above. Nor does it even come within spitting distance (if you could imagine a band of boychiks named Bombay freaking Bicycle Club even being able to hawk up a good loogie in the first place). In their stead, what you actually get are 11 upbeat, hopeful little ditties about wanting to have a good day, finding your second wind, being hopelessly in love and other cutesy-wutesy drivel-gloop straight from a bumper sticker, self-help poster or daily affirmation calendar near you. Oh sure, it’s all nice and sweet and earnest and fun and pleasant enough to listen to. It even rocks out occasionally and goes down smooth, thanks to producer John Congleton’s vibrantly colourful, tastefully textured sonic stamp. And geez Louise, even a grumpus maximus like me knows we could all use a little more positivity and light and optimism in our miserable lives these days (which seems to have been the band’s goal with the album, so you know, mission accomplished and all). I guess what I’m saying is this: If you’d like to find out whether BBC’s calorie-free, feel-good concoction might turn out to be your cup of tepid tea, by all means slurp it up and let it warm your cockles and wuzzy your fuzzies. It can’t hurt ya. But just remember: All the horribles and horrors of life, the universe and everything else will still be waiting right here when you decide to take your head back out of the sand and face grim reality. Toodle-pip.
