Bombay Bicycle Club album review

The debut album from London youngsters Bombay Bicycle Club has been a long time coming. Formerly pigeonholed in the same box as fellow indie upstarts Cajun Dance Party they have held back on releasing their first record until this summer, a full two years after their first EP release.

And it was a wise decision. I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose is a stunningly mature album, bursting with life and vitality and other such clichés always rolled out about bands that are young in years.

It’s genuinely difficult to pick highlights out. In the iPod generation of just picking out singles to listen to it works superbly as an album without appearing to have any outstanding tracks.

Always Like This manages to be both chirpy and dark, The Hill is probably their most accessible track, jauntily riffing along, Evening/Morning is Interpol-esque (i.e. brilliant) and Magnet starts off sounding like Song 2, winds up sounding like a million other Blur songs, but still manages not to sound like a complete rip-off.

Jack Steadman’s vocals won’t be to everyone’s tastes, coming across a bit too Brian Molko at times, but it works well enough with the music to be overlooked.

BBC appear to have slipped under the radar somewhat after their initial promise. But you’d be a fool to let them fade away into the indie ether. They’re just too good to suffer that kind of fate.

This review was originally written for The Music Magazine.