Biffy Clyro

‘Singles 01-05’

(Beggars)

‘Singles 01 – 05′ pulls together Biffy’s seven inch output on former label Beggars Banquet. Chronologically sequenced, the album perfectly exhibits the band’s progression from the melodic simplicity of their early songs (‘Justboy’, ‘27’) through to the taut, angular interplay (‘Toy Toys Toys…’, ‘My Recovery Injection’) on show towards the end of their Beggars’ days – it’s evident that right from the start there was always something wonderfully askew about Biffy’s songwriting. Whilst there really isn’t a bad song amongst the tracks collected here, this is a review of an album, not a collection of songs, and in the MP3 age there’s nothing a Biffy fan couldn’t playlist themselves. Great songs for the uninitiated, then, but little of worth for fans of the band.   

Conor McGloin