Review: Bombay Bicycle Club – “So Long, See You Tomorrow”

From the 1960s right up until the 1990s, it was somewhat a cliché as bands got older for them to add violins, a choir, or some unusual instrument from a foreign country. In the recent decades, this has been replaced by electronics. This was something Bombay Bicycle Club attempted in their previous album A Different Kind of Fix and some may have said it wasn’t the best the band could have done. They were never known for their lyrics. Their debut I Had the Blues, But I Shook Them Loose was more a take on the contemporary indie rock craze that revealed the band were above their peers due to their ability to be more technical with their abilities in the form of time signature changes and more than a simple groove or punkish drumbeat.  Their sophomore, Flaws, was mocked by many and if not forgotten by both fans as well as the band during times on stage when the musicians had to choose from their back catalogue. Yet, it was an underrated album that revealed the band could cover folk classics, were eclectic instrumentalists, and possessed a voice in Jack Steadman capable of adding the eager yet shy tone the songs needed. It seemed on their third CD that BBC forgot this when they abandoned their emotions and musical intricacies for something more standard and quite bland.

So Long, See You Tomorrow, their 4^th album to date, is everything that made BBC good in their first two albums applied to improve the problems of their third. The guitars are very hard to find, more background effect than the main player. The electronics are everywhere, but they are bright and catchy. Vocals are more repeated layers, often lacking verses, with many different choruses popping up amidst the jungles of keyboards around them as seen on “It’s Alright Now”, “Feel”, and “Come To”. The beloved angst and subtle romantic ponderings of earlier albums even find a place in this extravagant affair in “Carry Me” where we find “If anyone wants to know, our love is getting low” dropped in as a reminder throughout the song.

The album, however, shows the band has improved itself best in its addition of piano, an instrument that really brings out the painful hoping and reminiscing that Bombay’s vocals often give off. It’s found in “Home By Now” which is probably the best compilation of every sound found on the album and “Eyes On You” that finds the band reunited with the same Lucy Rose who sang on their second album. This addition shows itself to be an extraordinary touch of genius on the beautiful “Whenever, Wherever”, a half ballad that builds to have it all come down to find the listener back at the piano, lost in gentle longing for a time when solitude brings out the best in a person’s creativity. All in all, “So Long, See You Tomorrow” is the best closing Bombay has ever produced, making the album the most concise release to date. It’s almost in this final song, as the entrance keyboard notes sound eerily close to their third album’s single “Lights Out, Words Gone” chorus, that the band is apologising for their last album and quietly thanking their fans for sticking it through to wait for this excellent new release.