The first I heard of Bombay Bicycle Club was the song “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?” from their third album A Different Kind of Fix (2011), which got some play here in Canada. But other songs I heard, from an earlier album, didn’t sound very similar, and I didn’t connect them in my head until, searching for the EP version of “How Can You…”, I acquired all three of their albums. We are in an age in which musicians are much less tribal than they used to be. The bands that make the strongest impression today tend to be eclectic, drawing on many sources for their style, and changing their style as the mood suits them. They cannot easily be classified. This London band exemplifies the trend. A Different Kind of Fix is electro-pop, with a thick, layered sound, while Flaws (2010) is mostly acoustic stuff that sounds rough and impromptu, is clearly folk-inspired, and would play well to an audience of Joni Mitchell fans. Their debut album, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose (2009), was more or less conventional Indie-rock in form, but already showed a very high level of musicianship. “Evening/Morning”, “Always Like This”, and “Dust on the Ground” are songs that stand out on this first album, which has come to be my favourite of the three, as it has a mood and style that reminds me of early Kinks material, and this suits my temperament more than the lush sound of the third album. But all three albums reward listening.
Jack Steadman (vocals, guitar, keyboard) is the main creative force of the band, as the composer, but he obviously has a very close symbiosis with Jamie MacColl (guitar), Suren de Saram (drums) and Ed Nash (bass). This is the kind of band that gels from solid teenage friendships rather than studio match-making. I particularly like Suren de Saram’s percussion, which is first rate, but not overbearing or flashy. There is a classical discipline in this band — they may be young, but they are not naïve. These chaps know a lot of music and are accomplished pros.
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