REVIEW
Bombay Bicycle Club
So Long, See You Tomorrow Island Records
One of my biggest gig related regrets involves Bombay Bicycle Club. Having cycled there, at a post-gig signing I got them to scribble on a poster rather than my bike lights. Opportunity well and truly squandered. Never mind. BBC have become one of those coming-of-age bands (see: Te Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys); they’ve grown up with us. Since we last heard from Bombay Bicycle Club, singer and songwriter extraordinaire Jack Steadman has been globetrotting left right and centre, but with a bit more purpose than a gap year interrailing adventure. Opening with a borderline twee instrumental, ‘Overdone’ rapidly takes on a Bollywood vibe. Tis, blurred with the kind of vocals and drumbeats you’d expect, suggest evolution, and not a complete move away from the early days. It’s pretty clear the globetrotting has left its mark. Marks are deducted because I had very high hopes that ‘Whenever, Wherever’ was a Shakira cover. It is not. Later tracks include funky bass lines, smatterings of electro, more Asian influences, and some bloody depressing yet fairly poetic words. Tere’s dream pop notes and some beautiful guest vocals from both Lucy Rose and Rae Morris. Te whole thing is exquisite. As a whole it’s both different and oh- so-familiar. Tere is a history of bands who don’t quite pull off the worldly, but for Bombay Bicycle Club, and this album, it works.
Te Rifles
None the Wiser Cooking Vinyl
London indie mods Te Rifles have churned out their 4th studio album, ‘None the Wiser’, to be released in February 2014. I’ll go straight in with my honest and not so humble opinion of this 40- minute, 10-track album and then attempt to justify myself. As far as I can tell, there are in actual fact only 2 tracks on this album. ‘You Win Some’ is a subtly psychedelic folk tune, hints of reverb throughout and lyrics that manage to be both sombre and uplifting. Lilting harmonies meander through a beautifully constructed 3 and a half minutes - a testament to Te Rifles’ song writing abilities. Ten there’s everything else. All of the other 10 tracks (there’s a hidden one at the end, I didn’t miscount) sound remarkably similar, to the point where they may as well be one 36-minute long indie drone. A terrible shame if you ask me, as I believe Te Rifles are capable of more than this. A simple rehashing of old Te Jam tunes, essentially what ‘None the Wiser’ is, shouldn’t be enough to be classed as “yet another raising of the bar”. Sure, be a mod revival band, take influences from decades past, but do something new with it. Despite these all being original songs, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d somehow heard them all before. If you like your indie mod rock neatly pre-packaged and ready for mass consumption, then you’ll love humming the easy to remember chorus melodies as you strut around Glastonbury ’14 in a straw hat. If you have a more discerning taste, best give this one a miss.
Wild Beasts
Domino Records Bella Union
Te return of Wild Beasts signals a sharp wisp of breathy anticipation. I’m a fan. Citing carnal Fauvism as their mood board for their first couple of releases, both ‘Limbo Panto’ and ‘Two Dancers’ were like throwing yourself down the rabbit hole. Tey created such a Wonderland warren that you never knew which end of pace or pitch you were being thrown towards. ‘Smother’ gathered its wits slightly; perhaps the ride has to come to an end sometimes. Still, their imaginative songwriting and devastating passing the vocal baton between cerebral Hayden and snarling Tom made it a journey worth taking nonetheless. With ‘Present Tense’, they have embraced their maturity and togetherness, but I find their 80s sonic references a little lazy. In their early days, they were a band as influenced by post- impressionistic art as they were music; they were the disfunction and brash colour of Matisse and now they appear as one-dimensional as Nagel’s ‘Rio’ cover for Duran Duran. Incidentally, the backdrop sounds a bit Duran Duran. Tat’s not to say it’s not palatable; ‘Wanderlust’, the lead single, still has that tumbling giddiness that’s trademark of the Kendal band, and the others glide past in a perfectly digestible parade. ‘Daughters’ is rhythmic and tender, ‘Mecca’ makes the most of Hayden’s celestial crooning and ‘New Life’ is the most ambitiously sparse of their collection so far. Nice yes, but we find ourselves looking for an “Eat Me. Drink Me” to take the adventure on a different direction.
Maddie Russell
Jack Teare
Emma R. Garwood
outlineonline.co.uk /February 2014/ 29
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