So Long, See You Tomorrow… Good buy

Review: Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow

Published on February 5th, 2014 | Jonny Abrams

Bombay Bicycle Club’s fourth album So Long, See You Tomorrow is a decidedly different kind of fix to 2011’s A Different Kind of Fix, which experimented with beats but not so much with the gleaming synths that punctuate this impressive set.

The electronics feel naturally incorporated where so many modern attempts just feel arbitrarily shoehorned-in – see the new Maxïmo Park LP, for instance – and the rhythmic ante is upped straight from the off in “Opener”, which rides a big, swaggering beat through soaring string samples, buzzing low-end keys and an ecstatically climbing melody.

It’s a fine start and there’s little let-up from thereon in. Sure, the lyrics (and occasionally the vocal delivery) are at points a tad on the earnest side, but this is supported and successfully offset by the experimentation.

“It’s Alright Now” leads a shuffling sort-of-marching-beat through tooting sunbeams of high-end elements, the climactic “Carry Me” has angry huffs of staccato brass dotted about its mix under heavenly reverbed jangles of fast-picked guitar, and the glitchy piano motif in the Lucy Rose-featuring “Home By Now” is simply sublime.

So strong are the songs and productions on So Long, See You Tomorrow that “Luna”, which made our Best of This Week’s Singles round-up, feels like one of the least striking numbers of the bunch.

Treats keep on coming on the album’s second half: there are some lovely plinky bits and pieces on “Whenever, Wherever”, a sort of samba/soca rhythm underpinning “Feel”, while “Come To” shapes up for shoegaze before veering off into laterally conceived anthemry with ace crashing drums.

Bringing proceedings to a close is the six-minute title track, which veers towards Sigur Rós terrain then ushers back in those crashing drums and colours up the joint with what we feel moved to describe as “fluttering kites of synth”.

A fine end to a record that we hadn’t expected to enjoy half as much as we did. Hats off, Bombay Bicycle Club.

So Long, See You Tomorrow is out now on Universal/Island.

You can buy So Long, See You Tomorrow on iTunes and on Amazon.

Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!

a quail a quail a quail a quail

Artists: bombay bicycle club

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.