Biffy Clyro are an ever transitioning band, which is truly commendable, and indeed the true fan is always encouraged to stick with their band and follow the ebb and flow of their musical metamorphosis. And who can knock Biffy Clyro for following their dreams, they have replaced their white van for probably one, two or three luxurious coaches and headline festivals all over the world. It is a dream realised. It’s not to criticise their more recent output, it is just to state that hopefully they don’t lose their identity completely in the search of record label PR targets and ‘notable’ achievements. ‘Ellipsis’, their 2016 release is tittering on the brink of disappearing into the pop-rock sphere forever, which is not necessarily a bad thing and there are in fact a few truly great songs that lean to their musical past. Take ‘Ellipsis’ as a sound and an album from a new band and this would blow your socks off at their boundary pushing ingenuity, but within a Biffy Clyro catalogue of truly stellar musical production, it perhaps looks less daring, as say ‘Infinity Land’ did in 2004.
‘Wolves of Winter’, the first single from ‘Ellipsis’ offers much, and Biffy have been renowned for producing album openers that grip you by the shirt tails and tear you a new one (see ‘Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies’, ‘Bodies In Flight’, ‘Glitter And Trauma’ and ‘Joy. Discovery. Invention’). For the first time, the band are exploring and experimenting with new sounds including a vocoder which can be heard in the intro, before the riff takes you in to that punchy vocal style that ‘new’ Biffy have become synonymous with and indeed is a style adapted from their early musical endeavours. The dual and trio vocal parts are delightful, but always are with this band, and the diction of Simon is highly appreciable.
‘Friends and Enemies’ starts with sound effects not unlike a backing track to Madagascar, which is an odd choice of effects but the chorus is delicious, the mixed vocal parts sumptuous and the riff wonderful. Two thirds through the track is a choral round which gets the hairs on the neck twitching and ‘friends as good as you’ will surely be sung from the lungs of many over the coming ‘Ellipsis’ world tour which is bound to follow this release.
‘Animal Style’, the second single is pretty typical of the last few releases and there’s even a mention of ‘captain’s’ which Biffy seem to be lyrically addicted to. There is even a swear word in there, keeping the edge and preventing some from labelling them as ‘radio friendly pop-rock’ which is probably nearer to where this album sits than ever before.
If you didn’t listen to ‘Purpose’ by a certain someone, then you should, because for pop for pop’s sake, it’s up there, and it seems Biffy have taken a leaf out of Mr Bieber’s notebook with ‘Re-arrange’, the introductory ‘doo, doo, doo’ of Neil reminiscent of Bieber’s stylistic overlay of last year’s mega album. The transition to attract new audiences with this album is hugely noticeable and hopefully doesn’t lead to the total obliteration of what Biffy Clyro have stood for over the last twenty years or so.
‘Flammable’ is a welcome addition to this new style on show and has a beautiful structure and has you returning to replay, whereas ‘Herex’ feels like it blurs into obscurity and ‘Medicine’ in terms of originality is basically a slightly changed version of ‘Machines’ from ‘Puzzle’, with the need to put an acoustic track on every album feeling more like a PR move than a desire to express things through unplugged instruments.
‘On a bang’ is structured well and has more bite, Simon’s calls of ‘We’re only ones and zeros’ visceral and seemingly cathartic. But there is simply too little of this on the album and quite a few of the aforementioned tracks could just be wiped from the album without much concern.
The end of the album feels like it runs out of ideas – ‘Howl’ is a poppy and upbeat track which bears similarities to their last three albums and has some really warm dual vocals, but certainly isn’t overly memorable, ‘People’ is another more scaled back track and although it has a pleasant flow, it lacks any real substance and ‘Don’t, Won’t, Can’t’ is a catchy addition, the bass leading the song, with the addition of an accordion but again doesn’t leave you clamouring for more, which is a real shame.
The one saving grace of the back end of the album is ‘In the Name of the Wee Man’ which has an explosive and old Biffy sounding introduction, that delicious aggression in Simon’s voice spitting out ‘Someone to Talk to’, the subsequent lyrics being delivered in that spiky way that made them so likeable and different in the early days. ‘In the Name of the Wee Man’ blends the old and new style of Biffy perfectly, the chorus large and choral, and that blood pumping verse Biffy Clyro can do so well.
If only there was more of this mix on ‘Ellipsis’. Undoubtedly, this record will be huge, and indeed it has been created to be so, but it’s clear that their transition is becoming increasingly disparate. Good bye old Biffy, mon the new, and ever-changing Biffy.
DAVE BULL