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Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions

By Laura Lee Conboy on Friday, 20 November 20093 Comments | Print this post

While it doesn’t always happen, there is something hugely satisfying about a band’s commercial and artistic peak dovetailing. Biffy Clyro took the guts of 10 years to reach a mainstream audience but managed it with their best work to date, 2007’s fine Puzzle album. The worry now is that, having taken so long to truly find their sound, instead of continuing on the path of greater things to come, they would head down the road of perdition to being remembered under the category of ‘one decent enough album’. Add in concern over their future, due to frontman Simon Neil’s time spent with side project Marmaduke Duke and the question whether Only Revolutions could match its predecessor was a vexed one.

Spend merely a few moments with the record, however, and it becomes clear that Biffy Clyro have hit the nail on the head, gone one better than before and that all that worry was for nothing. After the success of its predecessor, it’s no surprise that the band chose Gareth Richardson to produce this album and the results are superb.

Thankfully, they didn’t go down the road of releasing the three best songs as singles, and it could safely argued that some of the album tracks perhaps stronger than the lead tracks The Captain, That Golden Rule and Mountains. Indeed, this is a record that never dips in quality from start to finish – there’s no need to guiltily skip to the familiar songs. The glare of the spotlight may have taken a while to reach them, but with Only Revolutions Biffy Clyro have raised their own bar and done themselves proud.

Biffy Clyro on MUZU.