A Different Kind of Fix
On its third album, Bombay Bicycle Club fashions a sound expansive enough to encompass introspective folk, ambient pop, and even a hint of ‘80s new wave. Under the production guidance of Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter), the North London foursome retains the whimsical charm of its earlier work while increasing the rhythmic drive and textural variety. BBC’s eclecticism finds unity in Jack Steadman’s softly insistent vocals, a natural outlet for the band’s impressionistic lyrics. If Fix’s song themes tend to be elusive, the tracks here are often insidiously catchy. Tunes like “Shuffle” (built around a stuttering piano and spring-loaded beat), “Your Eyes” (as lean and propulsive as vintage post-punk), and “What You Want” (boasting an insistent drum hook) are effortlessly ear-grabbing. Veering into more atmospheric regions are pastel-toned numbers like “Fracture” and “Favorite Day” (the latter tinged with a genteel psychedelia). Chorale vocals and a simmering groove lend “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep” a hypnotic power.
On their third studio album, Bombay Bicycle Club follow in the tradition of Snow Patrol's Final Straw and Travis' The Man Who: Band links with a hotshot producer (here, Ben Allen), ditches traditional indie sound, churns out soft-serve sweetness.
A hell of a lot’s been made of [a]Bombay Bicycle Club[/a]’s supposedly ‘baggy’ new direction.
Bombay Bicycle Club's third album, A Different Kind of Fix, arrives late and with a certain air of mystery. Any late album comes with the added intrigue of the unknown causes for its delay, the kind of thing that is most likely simple and logical but that we all like to mythologize as the result of drug abuse and in-fighting and broken hearted benders into temporary oblivion.
Discover A Different Kind of Fix by Bombay Bicycle Club released in 2011. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
They were indie. Then they were folk. Now they’re, er, baggy, if album opener ‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?’ is anything to go by.
Bombay Bicycle Club's third album is peppered with exquisite moments, writes <strong>Hermione Hoby</strong>
The former teen prodigies grow some muscles on their third album, says <strong>Rebecca Nicholson</strong>