Biffy Clyro - Opposites - New Album September

Mushy

Biffy webpage wrote:

Biffy Clyro have announced that 'OPPOSITES' will be the title of their forthcoming sixth studio album.

The band, who are currently finishing the album in an LA studio, have just unleashed the first track to be taken from the release in the form of 'STINGIN' BELLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyaWBhCkMcc

Really looking forward to this, as far as I know its gonna be a double album as well. Hopefully get some Irish shows on this tour now.

los cules

great news , one of my fav bands of recent years , each album is top class , looking forward to new album ...mon the biff !!

Xavi6

Great news, hopefully it's more 57 and less Many of Horror.

That song is a bit disappointing though.

Mushy

Not that long to wait till new album anyway. Hopefully hear better quality recordings of the songs theyve played live.

Creamy Goodness

album is not dropping until january.

i don't really get that special feeling i once got when there was a new biffy album out. the song is not bad, nowhere near the golden trio of VOB/BS/IL albums but it's probably the best they've done in quite a while.

the other songs off the album that i've heard sound epic like "modern magic formula".

better quality video here:

SilverScreen

The new song seems devoid of any real originality or new ideas, they seemed to have just stuck to some formula they discovered back when they recorded Puzzles and played it safe. It's hard to believe this is the same band that released Infinity Land, The Vertigo Of Bliss and Blackened Sky.

JamJamJamJam

Someone pointed out that this mirrors the artwork of That Golden Rule in its reference to the previous album (here it's the flag guy, TGR art had a puzzle piece!). Both songs were released before the albums too, so it's a nice touch. Looks like Storm artwork again, which would suggest that the rest of the album art will be Storm too. And that's okayyy in my books, but something completely different would be nice. Storm stuff is sometimes a bit same-y.. Souped up photographs...

But enough about the art! I'm sort of expecting the album to be very Only Revolutions-ish or Lonely Revolutions-ish. Of the songs we've heard they're not sounding too bad at all, but as someone mentioned, a lot of Biffy's newest songs seem to follow a formula of exciting intro, catchy chorus and big loud outro. This song, pour example. Lyrically Stingin' Belle is pish really, which sucks because Simon has written some amazing lyrics! Even if it does follow the same routine as a lot of the others, the music is pretty good. The only thing is that the intro is threatening to break into something terrifying altogether, but instead it's all smothered by nice calm hollow rimshots and talking about love! Wish the music was just what they play at 40 seconds instead

But overall I think the new songs I've heard are good, (really liking 'Sounds like Balloons', actually!) but they seem to just lack the inspiration that some of the older songs had. It'll be interesting to see how the songs sound live compared to the studio versions, because I'm not always a fan of how squeeky clean the production is, but they can translate fantastically into live performances. Can't wait to hear I'm Probably in your Pocket!

Also 'Opposites' isn't half as cool as 'The Land at the End of Our Toes' and 'The Sand at the Core of our Bones', but it's easier to type so it'll do :P

I heard it would be January too, but is that confirmed? They're finishing recording pretty much now, and the pre-order is September 17th, so that seems ages away!

Mushy

JamJamJamJam wrote: »

Also 'Opposites' isn't half as cool as 'The Land at the End of Our Toes' and 'The Sand at the Core of our Bones', but it's easier to type so it'll do :P

I heard it would be January too, but is that confirmed? They're finishing recording pretty much now, and the pre-order is September 17th, so that seems ages away!

Isn't the album called Opposites, with both discs being called 'TLATEOT' and 'TSATCOOB'? Kinda like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness?

Yeah I heard September, although that would be too quickly from now. Sooner the better really.

JamJamJamJam

Mushy wrote: »

Isn't the album called Opposites, with both discs being called 'TLATEOT' and 'TSATCOOB'? Kinda like Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness?

Yeah I heard September, although that would be too quickly from now. Sooner the better really.

Yeah but Opposites as the overall album title isn't half as cool as the disc titles :P Everyone keeps comparing it to Mellon Collie! Hope it's as good... :O

SilverScreen

JamJamJamJam wrote: »

Yeah but Opposites as the overall album title isn't half as cool as the disc titles :P Everyone keeps comparing it to Mellon Collie! Hope it's as good... :O

To be honest I can see this going horribly wrong. Biffy Clyro have been on a slide musically since they released Puzzles despite their commercial appeal growing. If they released a double album after Infinity Land and still continued on a similar path I think they would have done an okay job with it, as they still had a little bit of an experimental bent back then and a double album would have been challenging and interesting. But now they are a more commercially-inclined band and I see releasing a double album at this point in their career as a bit of an exercise in ego and over-indulgence. I could be proved wrong but that's the vibe I'm getting.

As for comparing it to Mellon Collie? I think it was step in the wrong direction for The Smashing Pumpkins and this could be a huge step in the wrong direction for Biffy Clyro. MC&TIS is a frustrating album to listen to not because of its length, but because they could have gotten rid of so much filler and made a really great album out of it (and I'm a Pumpkins fanatic by the way). This could very well be the case for the new Biffy album.

DAPOS1993

EXCITEMENT!

me-skywalker

That song is a bit weak. Only listened to it once so far but it has nothing redeeming about it.

Without going off course here, I take issue with this paragraph:

Zero1986 wrote: »

As for comparing it to Mellon Collie? I think it was step in the wrong direction for The Smashing Pumpkins and this could be a huge step in the wrong direction for Biffy Clyro. MC&TIS is a frustrating album to listen to not because of its length, but because they could have gotten rid of so much filler and made a really great album out of it (and I'm a Pumpkins fanatic by the way). This could very well be the case for the new Biffy album.

Just out of interest have you listend to the Vinyl version?

but because they could have gotten rid of so much filler

I t hink when you say "so much" its an exaggeration, for me there is only maybe 2 songs you could have cut from it but its pretty much flawless.

"made a really great album"

It is a really great album. Period.

SilverScreen

me-skywalker wrote: »

Just out of interest have you listend to the Vinyl version?

I have listened to it in the in vinyl sequencing and it didn't really change my opinion.

I think when you say "so much" its an exaggeration, for me there is only maybe 2 songs you could have cut from it but its pretty much flawless.

I meant "so much" as in...

Jellybelly
Cupid de Locke
Take Me Down
Where Boys Fear to Tread
In the Arms of Sleep
Tales of a Scorched Earth
We Only Come Out at Night
Lily (My One and Only)
By Starlight
Farewell and Goodnight

It is a really great album. Period.

Maybe, but compare it to Siamese Dream or even Adore and it doesn't seem that great. Compare a song like 'Soma' to a song like 'Bodies'. Still, some brilliant songs such as '1979' and 'Porcelina of the Vast Oceans'.

Mushy

Another new one, this one called Biblical! I really like it, can't wait to pick up the album.

Creamy Goodness

Mushy wrote: »

Another new one, this one called Biblical! I really like it, can't wait to pick up the album.

Ah Jesus. The chorus sounds like it was written by Justin Beiber and preformed by beiber and muse.

Xavi6

Yeah that's not very good at all

Corholio

Im quite liking 'Opposites'. I'm sure people who dislike 'Puzzle' wont expect a huge dramatic change back to their earlier sound so I'm sure they wont be in for this. However I enjoyed 'Puzzle', and for the stage in their careers the sound suits them.

'Trumpet or Tap', 'Victory over the Sun', 'Spanish Radio', 'Sounds like Balloons', 'The Joke's On Us', 'The Fog', 'Biblical' and ''Pocket' are highlights. 'Skylight' is also a beautifully crafted track.

2 little complaints about it, the 2 discs are quite similar to each other besides the cliche individual titles and so called different moods. Also they could have experimented a bit more I thought, because when they do (Spanish Radio, The Fog) it works really well. I've a feeling it's gonna be marmite with Biffy fans though.

Creamy Goodness

i disliked puzzle and i like this. now don't get me wrong it won't break in the the holy grail of biffy albums but it's a good listen.

slightly too much vocal effects though. grows a bit tiresome tbh.

alaimacerc

Zero1986 wrote: »

If they released a double album after Infinity Land and still continued on a similar path I think they would have done an okay job with it, as they still had a little bit of an experimental bent back then and a double album would have been challenging and interesting.

Hard to try to "unwind" their career to before Puzzle, and then replay it in "steady on course" mode... and see them still having one at all. Or at best, they'd be scrimping to do it parttime with a "real job", a la the likes of Tellison. Between IL and P the twins were apparently working mending roads, fercrissakes. I hate to think of bands "selling out" too, but it's hard to begrudge people aspiring to a standard of living above living out of a tourbus eating baked beans by the time they're thirty.

But now they are a more commercially-inclined band and I see releasing a double album at this point in their career as a bit of an exercise in ego and over-indulgence. I could be proved wrong but that's the vibe I'm getting.

My copy's still in the post from Jersey -- grrrrr, stupid slow-rolling 'preorder' scam! -- so it might be a disaster from a musical POV, for all I know. But I'd be slow to ascribe it to overweening hubris or some such. They claimed to just have a whole lot of material, so that'd be the most charitable explanation. Equally, Si said he seemed to have have some degree of writer's block for several weeks, so perhaps they just had a whole lot of B-grade panicky splurge material! Or, to be somewhat cynic about their relationship with their record company... perhaps the 20 tracks are a compromise between what they wanted to release, and what Warners felt they needed to shift the units.

Xavi6

The album is ridiculously bland and mundane imo, can't think of a track that really stands out.

Very disappointing considering the amount of tracks and the length of time they had to churn something out.

Mushy

Im really liking it, only song I didnt like at first was The Jokes on Us. Trumpet or Tap is probably the best one so far, but overall its much better than I expected for a double album. Roll on 28th March now...and hopefully 1st April too.

Creamy Goodness

it's not terrible, it's not as great as people making out though.

few stand out tracks for me,

different people (nice opener, better than 'the captain' for sure)
a girl and his cat (great title, not bad song either)
little hospitals (probably the best off the album)
spanish radio (this needed a longer 'Hey' outro but good nonetheless)
accident without emergency (should have been a closer)
picture a knife fight (like this as it's quite obvious that the song is about the band nearly breaking up)

now maybe i'm like a delusional muse fan that their favourite band is still good but yeh i know biffy will never go back to just guitar/bass/drums but **** it, life is too short especially when it's actually listenable and sure to actually get them a number 1. they're three of the hardest working guys i've seen (used to tour ireland at least 4 times a year during the good years) :pac:

JamJamJamJam

Love it! On the surface it's great and really enjoyable and fun to listen to, plus there's so much more to this album than there seems. There are some really great songs here, with very complex bits and bobs scattered around. They use weird timing and stuff a lot, it's cool There's some really cool ideas. The production is wonderful, too. This is their best album since IL, no problem. I'm listening to Only Revolutions right now and Opposites just shows it up. Even the gimmicky stuff is cool - Kazoos and Mariachi band and everything.

I mean, 'Black Chandelier' seems to be very 'new Biffy', and loads of people dismiss that immediately, but oh my God, the line, "When it's just the two of us, only the two of us, I could die". I thought it meant something like "When I'm with you I feel such absolute contentment that I could happily die there and then". Which is.. fine. Apparently, though, it's about the awful stuff him and his wife have gone through... She's had three miscarriages in the past couple of years. Heavy stuff...

Biblical is a bit funny. From the people who brought you the lines "Boulders of spite-ridden love-decay" and "kill your bizarre mindset, ****head, soldered to a three-layered concrete brainwave castration" :P

SilverScreen

Their new album isn't too bad I guess. It's still the safe, generic, middle of the road FM rock they've been pedeling since Puzzles but done a bit better. It's got nothing on Infinity Land. I still think a single album should have done though.

alaimacerc wrote: »

Hard to try to "unwind" their career to before Puzzle, and then replay it in "steady on course" mode... and see them still having one at all. Or at best, they'd be scrimping to do it parttime with a "real job", a la the likes of Tellison. Between IL and P the twins were apparently working mending roads, fercrissakes. I hate to think of bands "selling out" too, but it's hard to begrudge people aspiring to a standard of living above living out of a tourbus eating baked beans by the time they're thirty.

There's nothing wrong with being a part-time band. Some great music has been recorded by part-time bands over the decades, who didn't feel the need to compromise their sound and become more commercial just so they could make a career out of it. It all depends what you're in it for. There's nothing wrong with selling-out either, look at Sonic Youth in the early 90's.

alaimacerc

Zero1986 wrote: »

It's still the safe, generic, middle of the road FM rock they've been pedeling since Puzzles but done a bit better.

If you're going to give us a mini-tour of their earlier albums, maybe at least get the titles right.

There's nothing wrong with being a part-time band.

I'm not saying there's any disgrace in it -- hence my example of Tellison, who I think are veritable welterweight indie rock gods. But it must be pretty dispiriting to a lot of bands in that position: "You can't earn enough at this to make a living wage, so you'll have to cross-subsidise from your real job, and work it as a second shift." Pretty much a step away from "just consider it a hobby". And it's not ideal from a fan viewpoint either. No idea when their next album might struggle out, and their chances of making it here on tour seem close to zero. And as annoyed as I might be with Warners' shenanigans with Biffy's album, at least I'd have a degree of confidence they'll be solvent enough to make another album.

SilverScreen

alaimacerc wrote: »

If you're going to give us a mini-tour of their earlier albums, maybe at least get the titles right.

Close enough.

I'm not saying there's any disgrace in it -- hence my example of Tellison, who I think are veritable welterweight indie rock gods. But it must be pretty dispiriting to a lot of bands in that position: "You can't earn enough at this to make a living wage, so you'll have to cross-subsidise from your real job, and work it as a second shift." Pretty much a step away from "just consider it a hobby". And it's not ideal from a fan viewpoint either. No idea when their next album might struggle out, and their chances of making it here on tour seem close to zero. And as annoyed as I might be with Warners' shenanigans with Biffy's album, at least I'd have a degree of confidence they'll be solvent enough to make another album.

That's understandable but it all boils down to whether the artists are in it to create the art they actually want to create or just to make music as a business. The latter often doesn't result in ground-breaking music.

This is still straying away from my original point which was to do with their musical direction. If Biffy Clyro were to make a double album after Infinity Land (persuming they were able to maintain momentum as an indie band) and further explored the paths laid out by the previous three albums, I think they could have made something really interesting and challenging. It's only speculation though. Granted their first three albums weren't the most ground-breaking either compared to the 90's post-hardcore and math-rock bands that inspired them but they did have a really interesting alternative rock sound for a few years.

Mushy

Headlining Reading fest this year. Meuch deserved for them.

muppetkiller

I like it but it's hardly a huge step forward for them...keeps the same consistent quality of Lonely revolutions. I can't help think though this is another album that will not do the tracks justice until you've heard them all live.
Biffy are a true example of a band that are infinitely better live than their Albums suggest.
IMO

Mushy

muppetkiller wrote: »

I like it but it's hardly a huge step forward for them...keeps the same consistent quality of Lonely revolutions. I can't help think though this is another album that will not do the tracks justice until you've heard them all live.
Biffy are a true example of a band that are infinitely better live than their Albums suggest.
IMO

Exactly this for me. Only Revolutions songs were amazing live, work well with older stuff.

Maximus7

Massive Biffy fan. Love their first 3 records the most (even have the tatts to prove it) but have to say this is a masterpiece. In fairness it's exactly what was expected from them. They did say that they were leading towards this point for the last 5/6 years and now that they they have mastered this 'Anthem Rock' they will probably do something totally different on their next project. Bands move forward, stay static and they get left behind ....."like an abandoned car, old and worn and no use at all"......