Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day Review

Bombay Bicycle Club are back with a maximalist, genre-play party that reaffirms their status as beloved indie masters. 

Bombay Bicycle Club open their highly anticipated 2023 album ‘My Big Day’ with a single refrain repeated eight times: ‘just a little, little, little more time’. This could be a reference to their extensive discography over the last two decades, or perhaps the years since the release of their 2020 album ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’. This playful nod to the fortitude of their fans’ patience works also as an ode to their musical journey thus far. The pulsating pressure in the bass beneath this mantra reveals their rejuvenated sound jumping and skipping track-to-track, as if the band themselves are running to catch-up with this new experimentation. In this perfect opening, we see the whole album working in delicate balance, racing forwards whilst self-consciously looking back.

‘I Want To Be Your Only Pet’ rejects this playfulness for prowling, scowling sulkiness. The textured crescendo is eventually reduced to a whispered bridge: threatening, intimate, and heart-racingly good. In this quiet you can almost hear their killer debut ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ rising from the ashes of time and bursting into delicious genre-hybrid as voice distorts and buzzes, as drums roll aggressively. We aren’t playing the same game anymore, this song says. The album’s defining track and one of the best songs of 2023. 

Though this darkness is a welcome twist in narrative, all the airy, whimsical charm of track ‘Sleepless’ featuring Jay Som proves their successful duality as a band. The contrapuntal melody of the funky guitar dizzies the softness of their vocals and takes the reigns. Despite the sound, this isn’t cheesy, breezy or light-hearted; the melancholy lyrics evident only multiple listens later are hidden beneath a major key and twinkling vocals. 

Here follow two stand-alone singles, titular track ‘My Big Day’ and ‘Turn The World On’, both swinging from the hips and reminding us how there’s beauty in detail. The latter track especially feels grandiose as it weaves a beautiful story of hope and inspiration in the context of growing up. 

 It isn’t long until we get another collaboration. British singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya struts all over ‘Meditate’, an effortless shimmy into sexy, self-assured egomania: ‘I never walk, I levitate’. The chorus is one that jerks and kicks, full of life, the rhyme so simple and effective it's a mystery that nobody has thought of it before. The beauty of this track is also apparent in the ending, as it slides into instrumental ‘Rural Radio Predicts the Rapture’. Jack Steadman’s vocals are a centre-point for what makes their sound so unique. So on the face of it, a full instrumental is a risk - one that pays off big time. The track’s alliteration captures only the glimmer of its essence, a thick, infused, poetic body of victorious brass and animated drumming.

The next track, ‘Heaven’, divides opinions. Surprisingly, Blur legend Damon Albarn shuffles surreptitiously at the back of the impressive list of collaborators, even if the military-style drums do give him the backing of a king. It’s a shame he sings such a lack-lustre part. But, listen at the right moment (an emotional train journey or the end of a summer’s day, sun-kissed and nostalgic for time just gone) and the track soars and shines with a body like a meandering river leading straight to the bounty of the ocean.

A peculiar track follows; ‘Tekken 2’ is a collaboration with disco queen Chaka Khan. An interesting mix, but it fits right in. The clap-track and jazzy guitar above the bouncing bass make this a head-bopper. ‘We don’t need to wallow in our old selves’ they promise, and I believe it. Chaka Khan appears just as the piano hums a simple riff, and here we are - listener, musician, time itself, swaying hips in unison. Somehow, this belongs both on Heart radio and Radio X, championing a jubilant versatility that’ll stand the test of time. It’s genius.

Next is Holly Humberstone’s feature ‘Diving’. Though a sweet and catchy single, its placement in the album brings into focus the geography of space throughout. Here, the maximalist sound-scape leaves the listener itchy for something that can breathe. As if in anticipation of this exact feeling, the slowed down version has also been released, which works better for me.

Finishing alone with six-minute tune ‘Onward’, the classic Bombay Bicycle Club equation –  contemplative lyrics and heavy acoustic guitar – is out in full force. Something for autumn, for the sweetness of endings. And yet, not even this long 3 year wait, nor the questionable cover art, can convince me that this is the end of Bombay Bicycle Club. This expansive, delectable experimentation is promising and gooey, confidently different. Bombay Bicycle Club here serve up collaboration, collectivity and joy at a time we need it more than ever.