Bombay Bicycle Club
‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’
(Island)

It’s hard not to see the parallels between Arctic Monkeys and Bombay Bicycle Club – an absurdly youthful bunch of upstarts bursting with talent, all centred around a precocious songwriter, in BBC’s case frontman Jack Steadman. Add to that the level of hype surrounding them – they were V Festival’s Road To V winners in 2006 – and that’s a whole shitheap of expectation for such collective of moistened earlobes to be dealing with. Thankfully, the Monkeys parallels don’t end there, because ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ (hey! – mouthful of an album title an’ all!) cements every ounce of promise that has preceded them into a monolithic statement of intent that towers above and beyond their tender years. Right from the off, the title track meekly invites the unwitting listener in with a gently persuasive guitar riff before ripping a great big fucking hole in the fabric of sound and creating a vortex wherein the lost souls of guitars go writhing in tuneful agony towards infinity. Not a bad start, that, and the subsequent couplet of ‘Lamplight’ and ‘Evening/Morning’, which seem to perfectly rebound off one another – the former a kind of space-bound Mansun, the latter bringing Placebo down to earth with a thump and a hangover – establishes a platform upon which BBC never really descend. OK, so groovetastic single ‘Always Like This’ sounds a bit like Brian Molko doing Boy George impressions, but the positives of that curious dichotomy far outweigh the negatives – its groove-laden funkiness will have you crippled with hip-shake spasmodics. Indeed, such is the anticipation surrounding the aforementioned track, much of this album will thwack you right out of your preconceptions with its sheer diversity. While the cerebral reflections of ‘Ghost’ tantalise with fibrous transcendence, balls-out rifferamas like ‘Magnet’ and Editorsesque ‘What If’ provide the perfect counterbalance that – dare we say it? – borders on calculating. As complete a debut album as you’re going to hear all year, ‘I Had The Blues…’ runs the gamut of youthful exuberance while managing to observe the mechanics of consequence. The beyond-his-years sagacity of Steadman’s lyrics flushes out a perspective that resonates with all the studious perplexity of youth, blending rush with regret, excess with examination, love with lament. Anchored by the sunrise hangover of lilting lullaby ‘Morning After’, the album fittingly staggers to a close with wide-eyed shagged-out insomnia – a bit pissed, a bit bruised, blinded by the new dawn and utterly in love with life. The perfect end to the greatest of parties – and one that looks damn good on and off the dancefloor.

Stephen Brolan