Biffy Clyro
Puzzle

THE REVIEW

So, have Biffy Clyro finally reached the long-awaited maturity? This new "Puzzle" has just been released... Given their undoubtedly fascinating but also complex preference for excessively deconstructed songs, so excessively that it divides critics without winning over the masses, the title suggests little good. Upon closer listening, you’ll notice that a lot will change compared to their previous works, but the ingredients, used in a less adventurous way, will be pretty much the same.

In the nonetheless crazy "Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies" I still see the punk verses and the Nirvana choruses. At least, however, the rhythm is consistent. There are traces of novelty in the music, more instrumental, with strings and slightly gothic-ecclesiastical choirs. In "Staurday Superhosue" (spelled just like that) I hear "Go With The Flow" by Queens Of The Stone Age in the chorus; and those guitars chasing each other in the verses, what do they remind you of? The obvious references to Josh Homme and company continue with "Who's Got A Match?" It remains a fact that they haven't lost the flair for 4-minute tracks and the catchiness for easy listening for rockers. "As Dust Dances" is a ballad that electrifies late, or is it that the song is too long?

Emo (finally?) makes a comeback in "A Whole Child Ago", in its more standard version. Traces of Sunny Day Real Estate (the non-commercial emo, I know it seems contradictory) reappear in "The Conversation Is...". The skip is instead advisable for "Now I'm Everyone", while in "Semi-Mental" we return to being dragged by the "trusted currents" produced by Homme. More interesting is "Love Has A Diameter", a cross between a male U2 specimen and a female emopunk. Despite the title, "Get Fucked Stud" is the episode most traditionally in Biffy style, made of slow arpeggios followed by loud screams of Mark Arm and Nirvana-like choruses. "Folding Star" is another potential hit, all driving rock. The grand finale and stroke of genius materializes in the symphonic (and lyrical) "9/15ths", with the same strings and choirs as the opening "Living Is...". Chanted choirs and a determined pace, two and a half minutes of pure power. A path, this one, to delve deeper into in the future. Yes, but my mother always told me that one should work by subtraction, not addition, because it's better to do fewer good things than many poorly, or even left halfway through. What did Biffy Clyro's mother say, however? Peaceful ending for "Machine", acoustic and cello.

What impresses in this "Puzzle" is the amount of tracks that can "stand" as singles, at least according to my assessment, six. Without betraying their audience, or not completely, they mostly abandon the famous constant accelerations/decelerations at all costs, even where the song did not benefit from it. There you go: the song structure finally takes precedence - before it was not always like this - over the music and riffs. Kurt has mostly turned into Josh Homme, while Mr. Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate has become any vocalist of the most vulgar and chart emo. Less raw sound, light but present production, keyboards, pianos, and in two cases strings "normalize" the band's sound from Ayrshire. For now, this is the work, despite the title, that is the least "puzzle" and least crazy in their career. The most radio-friendly (hoping for them that it yields something monetary), but not the best, which for me remains the genuine first, which I reviewed. It is hoped that one day they can truly find their own stylistic mark, drawing from here and there as everyone does, but without outright copying what was Kurt's yesterday, what Josh is today, what might be Mien_Mo_Man's (maybe!) tomorrow.

As many steps forward as backward.