Album: Only Revolutions
Label: 14th Floor
Rating: 3.5/5
Biffy Clyro’s Only Revolutions is probably their most radio friendly album to date. Filled with massive choruses and bold, soaring guitars, the album proudly embraces a multitude of sound. Though the lyrics are enigmatically bizarre at times, Only Revolutions becomes an intense personal memoir from the band.
The album largely concerns itself with the trials and tribulations inherent with the ideas of love, loss and the evolution of relationships. Fuelled by heartfelt and honest intentions, the album incorporates many classic elements of rock into its sound.
The most impressive aspect of the LP is its diversity of character. “God and Satan” and “Many of Horror” (an arena rock ballad for sure) are melancholic in structure and tone, while “Booooom, Blast and Ruin” and “Cloud of Stink” are aggressive, piercing rock epics.
As if sparring with himself, singer Simon Neil’s vocalisation relishes confliction. His singing borders on moments of painful anguish that, at times, intersects defiantly with jubilant desire. It is this delicate balance of contrasting emotional depth that propels the record beyond any sense of predictability.
Though it is marred by some unmemorable tracks, the album still resonates as a solid contender in a world full of rock pretenders.
