Album review: Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 19:03

BIFFY CLYRO

Only Revolutions

****

14th Floor Records 5186561452, 12.72

The trio were on a Biffy to nothing with their fifth album, following up their breakthrough Puzzle record. That transformed the Kilmarnock band from cult rock heroes to mainstream contenders, and sensibly the aim is consolidation rather than further reinvention. It works.

The first two singles encapsulate their complexity. Golden Rule boasts all the expected tortured twists and turns. Turning a guitar riff inside out and upside down, it's a distant relative of Puzzle's opener Living Is Easy. In contrast, The Captain is an orchestral-driven drinking ditty and the most overly commercial thing they've recorded to date. Which will have diehards muttering into their Biffy beards about selling out.

It is a small price to pay to propel the three nicest boys in rock into the major league. Bubbles is tremendous nonsense: an almost Californian crowd pleaser offset by trademark syncopated guitar detonations.

Biffy Clyro's success has been painstakingly built over a decade, and this record suggests there is another ten years and more in them.

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&#149 This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 08/11/09