Bombay Bicycle Club has been around for five years now. Its fourth album So Long, See You Tomorrow releases next week and sees it come on a wave of huge promotion and expectation. It’s hard to think of another young British band signed to a major label that courts the attention of teenage orientated pop radio stations, hipster-driven credible music channels, and even middle-of-the road 40+ music media the way that Bombay Bicycle Club does. It has a lot to do with the band’s ability to construct melodies built around loops, matched with offbeat rhythms that often incorporate soaring strings sonically strung to shine. They know how to make adult pop songs, and that makes them an irresistible British music phenomena.
It’s difficult to think of another indie guitar band that has the backing of a label president the way Island Records’ Darcus Beese has granted Bombay Bicycle Club the freedom to try what they like. Even their manager, Jason Marcus, has been with the band since seeing their first gig in their school assembly hall, and encouraged them to finish college before leaping into the music business full-time. They are a rare example of a modern band that has been nurtured and developed by the British music industry in exactly the way all credible artists should be, but a lot of that direction comes from the intelligence of the band itself. This is a proper act with a long-term vision, not a band that simply exists to provide more of the same. None of their albums sound identical, yet their work never feels dishearteningly unfamiliar. This is why every new Bombay Bicycle Club album is an exciting release.
Featuring lovely vocal contributions of Lancashire lass Rae Morris, Luna is dreamy in all the right ways, though, its synchronised swimming music video will always be a naff idea unless you can hire someone like Spike Jonze to helm, which they obliviously couldn’t.
