Biffy Clyro
Futique
Via Warner Records
Out on September 19!!!
It’s always the quiet ones. Sure, ‘Futique’s' absolutely stacked with loud-as-you-like bastard big bangers. Aggy-riffed rattling basslined fight-starter ‘Hunting Season’ leads Biffy Clyro’s full throttle, fangs bared assault of album tracks that could kick the teeth from your head with just a few chords. The slow-drip delayed gratification intro to opening track ‘A Little Love’ is laced with lush, rich strings, aching to burst into a classic Clyro chorus – anthemic, euphoric and cathartic as hell. And that’s the fairytale formula across ‘Futique’ – the band’s never ceasing knack of writing fever-pitch refrains. But they’re rarely a happy-ever-after. Heavenly ‘Shot One’ is earth moving and melodic, with lyrics sugarcoating nothing (‘Love is all that matters/But it also shatters’). Same with blissful, soaring orchestral powerhouse ‘Friendshipping’ with a painfully accurate papercut of a chorus. But it’s the low-key intro to ‘True Believer’, simply with frontman Simon Neil’s stripped back, unescapably clear vocals – no bass, no drums, just drama – that sting the most. ‘Goodbye’ makes your legs buckle like a metal bar to the back of the knees. There’s no instrumental or vocal violence here though – just raw, wound-ripping emotion. Simon’s vox splinters so much at points that you can feel it gouging you from the inside. Spoiler alert for ‘Futique’ – there will be tears. The album explores the idea life is full of ‘lasts’. Everything, at some point, happens for a final time. What do we miss from our past, what do we have now, and what will we miss in the future? Every track from this record could be released and slot easily into radio and streaming playlists. This isn’t entry level Biffy – that title’s still held by ‘Revolutions’. ‘Futique’ is the best of Biffy.