After winning Virgin Mobile’s Road to V battle of the bands competition in 2006, Bombay Bicycle Club released three full-length albums from 2009-2011. They powered through the flavor-of-the-month status heaped upon them by the British press, and made it through the roller coaster ride that typically follows overnight style success, a ride that usually kills lesser bands.
Releasing three albums in three years, along with the touring schedule that accompanies such releases, inspired the band, specifically front-man Jack Steadman, to take some much needed time off to reenergize and reevaluate the direction of the band.
This resulted in the band taking their time approaching the crafting of a new record, in the time they wrote three records, the band instead slowed down and worked on one, the recently released So Long, See You Tomorrow.
On So Long… we find the band up to the same tricks, but with a deeper sense of structure and complexity, something that you hope would be present after spending three years writing. That early Artic Monkeys Brit-pop meets the world pop of Vampire Weekend is still prevalent, but the breadth of sounds and influences has definitely grown.
The first sense of this was within the first single release of “Carry Me,” with thunderous procussion, heavier layers of electronic rhythms, a shift in octaves for Steadman, and in the music video, a song that encompasses performance art, stretching far beyond the indie rock envelope.
From the atmospheric dream-pop of, “Eyes Off You,” to the aggressive driving drums of the lead off track “Overdone,” the band has definitely explored, and co-opted sounds from several genres, including world, Bollywood, new wave, R&B, and even trip hop and down-tempo, all while keeping their overall pop sound intact.
Bombay Bicycle Club are currently on their U.K. Tour, which includes an appearance in the first-ever BBC 6 Music Festival (28 February – 01 March), a stop on 13 March at 02 Academy Brixton in London before heading to the States to play Coachella (the April 11 – 13 weekend), and eventually making their way to Denver to play the Gothic Theatre on April 27.
Buy the album So Long, See You Tomorrow on iTunes: http://po.st/SLSYT5
Buy special formats: http://po.st/BBCStoreMusicYT
Tour tickets: http://po.st/BombayTour
https://www.facebook.com/bombaybicycleclub
https://soundcloud.com/bombay-bicycle-club
https://twitter.com/BombayBicycle
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