Opposites

Opposites is the sixth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro, which was released on 28 January 2013. A double album, Opposites was originally announced as a pair of albums: The Land at the End of Our Toes and The Sand at the Core of Our Bones, these will now be the names of the individual discs on the albums. Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell features as a guest vocalist on the songs "Opposite" and "Accident Without Emergency". The album features 20 songs across the two discs.

Overview

"Stingin' Belle" was the first recorded song to be publicly played, debuting on BBC Radio 1 on 31 July 2012. The song was released online along with a video consisting of material made of the album's recording in Los Angeles and the band's live shows. Although at times discussed as a single, the song was only made available through digital download.

The first physical single from the album, "Black Chandelier", debuted on BBC Radio 1 on 19 November. The release of the single was announced to take place on 14 January 2013. Actor Ricki Hall disclosed on his Twitter account that the video for the song was being filmed. The video was released on 11 December.

On 14 December, actor Ev Salomon revealed on Twitter that the video for "Victory Over the Sun" had been finished filming.

Several songs from the album were publicly played live before the release. On 22 September 2012, at the iTunes show in London, the band has already been playing five songs from Opposites: "Stingin' Belle", "Sounds Like Balloons", "The Joke's On Us", "Modern Magic Formula" and "Victory Over the Sun". On 20 November, the band played "Black Chandelier" and "Opposite" on Later... with Jools Holland with guest support musicians Mike Vennart and Richard "Gambler" Ingram (British Theatre, ex.Oceansize)

Background

More than three years between Only Revolutions and Opposites mark the longest gap in Biffy Clyro's publishing history. During this time, the band's rising popularity saw them perform an increasing amount of shows, which delayed the work on the new album. The band had been reported to work on the new songs as soon as the spring of 2010. In March 2011, Simon Neil told BBC that he had "15 or 16 songs" ready for the album and that the record would get done "as soon as [they] got off the road". The band played the first new song to later appear on Opposites, entitled "Joke's On Us", on 3 July 2011 at Milton Keynes, in what was set as one of their last gigs before heading to the studio.

Opposites main recording sessions started in early 2012 and lasted for five months at The Village Studios in Los Angeles. The producer was GGGarth Richardson, returning to the work with Biffy Clyro after producing two previous albums, Puzzle and Only Revolutions. Also returning from Only Revolutions was the orchestra and choir conductor, David Campbell. The keyboard parts were made by Jamie Muhoberac, who also performed on Only Revolutions. In May 2012, NME announced that the band is going to release two albums, The Land and the End of Our Toes and The Sand at the Core of Our Bones. A month later, it was reported that the band "changed their mind" on the double title. Simon Neil revealed the album's final title on 31 July 2012 on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1. The release date has been announced on 18 September 2012 on Biffy Clyro's website.

In an interview with Q, the band claimed to have had written 45 songs by the end of 2011. That number was said to give them a feeling of necessity to make Opposites a double album. "There's no filler on this one", Ben Johnston assured in an NME feature. "We wanted to make the first double album that you could enjoyably listen to from start to finish", said Simon Neil on Zane Lowe's show on BBC.

Concept

Simon Neil described the theme of Opposites: "Each album is the exact opposite vibe to the other lyrically (...) One's about putting things in the worst possible way and thinking you're getting yourself into a hole. The other looks at things more positively". James Jonhston elaborated in an interview on Rockyourlife.fr: "The Sand... is about past and things that brought you to that point, the difficult things in your life, the things you can't change, the things which are difficult. And The Land... is about what comes next and your hopes and fears about the future, how you can make things better and bring things together in order to move forward".

As the band later related in an NME feature, the duality was impacted by their prolonging touring. "We (...) toured for so long, you can get home and feel like you don't belong" - said Neil. The band mentioned the feeling of alienation, resignation and strains on relations with friends and families, all induced by long years of touring with Only Revolutions. The songs written in Scotland during that time were said to be "angry, angsty and fractured". As the band members confessed, they felt the band was on a verge of breaking up. A day before the start of recording, Ben Johnston had a drunk accident and cut his ear, which made him acknowledge his drinking problem. The next months spent in the LA studio, the band isolated from the outside world, helped them recover emotionally and physically, change the lifestyle and "very very improve [their] way of life". This influenced the character of material they worked on. Described by NME, the first album - The Sand... - has a "dark and solitary" mood, while the second - The Land... is "uplifiting and unifying".

The band numerously described their musical approach to the album as "over the top", referencing the diversity of musical styles and instruments used during recording Opposites. "We're not putting limits on this record (...) Anything we wanted to try, we've been able to try", said Neil on BBC. The album was announced to include a wide array of sound sources; such as bagpipes, kazoos, a mariachi band, tap dancing, church organ, tubular bells and the "sound of the band's beards being scratched". Not every experiment found its way to the final album, though. . On the other hand, songs "Pocket" and "Skylight", which were written before Only Revolutions and had remained unreleased, found their way to Opposites.

Artwork

The album's cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson, a renowned English graphic designer who also made the covers of Puzzle and Only Revolutions before. To reveal the cover on the band's website, Biffy Clyro asked the fans to tweet hashtag #biffyopposites on Twitter. After 9000 tweets in 12 hours, the full cover has become visible. The cover is supposed to depict the oldest living tree in the world, located in Chile. Neil said: "I loved the original image of the tree, and I got thinking about how strong the roots must be, and how strong my band is - how we can deal with anything, because we have each other".

Reception

First reviews have been positive so far. Al Fox of BBC, was favourable in his review and described the album as "a solid, engaging and high-calibre album". Mojo praised the album and rated as a "heartfelt and brilliantly executed" work.

Tracklisting

Double Edition Tracklisting

All songs written and composed by Biffy Clyro. Lyrics written by Simon Neil. Vorlage:Track listing Vorlage:Track listing