Biffy Clyro - Puzzle (Review: Alex)

I listened to this album when it first came out, albeit briefly. I remembered liking it, but couldn't recall a single song from it. Having listened to it again, I can't remember why I didn't give it the recognition it deserves last time around.

I like this album for a number of reasons. First of all, there is an incredible depth to Biffy Clyro's sound. I have no idea how they do it; it could be down to some ridiculously high gauge guitar strings, or simply to some fantastic production. Either way, this album sounds like every note is resonating around my head long after it's been played. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, but I can hear it most on 'Living Is a Problem...'. It makes the music sound artificially dark, and reminds me a lot of Led Zeppelin songs like 'Immigrant Song' and 'Moby Dick'. If this is a sound they can replicate live, then I would very much like to see them.

Another reason why I like this album is because I can't possibly place it into a genre. It's almost like a heavy sort of indie music. 'A Whole Child Ago' for example, has a very indie sort of riff, but is a quite heavy, quite dark song (as is the whole album, for that matter). Puzzle makes me wonder what ever happened to pure rock music. Every sort of music seems to be thrown into many millions of sub-genres (like when Roshan told me off for calling his album for this week 'classical'). It's nice to hear a band which doesn't fit into any preconcieved genre. It makes me think that they didn't set out to do anything, and landed upon their sound almost by accident.

Because there is so much I do like about this album, I find myself focussing on petty little things which I don't like. A lot of the time I just feel like they're putting things in, simply for the sake of being artistic. When, at the end of 'Saturday Superhouse' they slide out of key, I never fail to get very annoyed. I can't understand why they do it. It's almost as if they're trying to ruin the song. It's worse every time I listen to it aswell, simply because I'm expecting it. It's a shame, because it's a truly fantastic song. Similarly I can't see a need for the really long intro to 'Living is a Problem...', not because it's long, but because it lacks any sort of time signature or structure. At one point everything stops, and the drummer just hits the ride cymbal. Forgive me, but when I was in a band at the age of about 14, that's exactly the sort of thing I would have been doing. It's an unnecessary device, and doesn't make the band seem any better, or any cleverer than they are.

But like I said, this is all very petty indeed. I really like this album, and don't hesitate to give it a 4/5.