I Have The Blues

Ask me to list the bands that went for a whole new musical approach for their studio offerings this year and I might stop next year. Bombay Bicycle Club seem determined to add their name to this lengthy list (and make fun with all the other on the list of Friendly Fires – see “Stupid Quotes Of The Year” list in December). As if bored to be the teeny precocious ones, of bringing you the most exciting guitar riffs and the most anthemic indie numbers, the four North Londoners decided to craft the acoustic Flaws, a true bedroom (singer Jack Steadman’s bedroom, that is) recording.

“Stripped down” is the expression du jour and each song is here to support it. Americana and folk are the things that work for BBC this time. It’s like they were on a diet of Ryan Adams, Sufjan Stevens, Devendra Banhart and Bon Iver. Steadman’s voice swings between Devendra and Bon Iver, the banjo almost takes you in Sufjan’s special world, the guitar off opener Rinse Me Down seems to be the identical twin of Adams’s Everybody Knows. Make no mistake, the quirkiness of these singers is always there too.

Stripped down of all glitz of Indieland but also of all fear that showing your emotions is wrong. Chimes, Spanish guitars, Devendra-scented sunny chords, all fail to hide what this album utterly lacks: optimism. “I’ve always been a coward” complains Steadman on Many Ways only to cry of a broken heart a few songs later and making you wonder when did these kids get older before their time.

The problem is that the album, while deeply beautiful, isn’t all together that memorable. It has highlights like the ethereal Flaws but, on an overall basis, it sounds too much as if the four just took from the four artists above without making anything their own. It feels like Bombay Bicycle Club’s only desire was to make an album different from their debut I Had The Blues But I Shot It even if it wasn’t necessarily themselves. It’s rather a shame because, after hearing Flaw, it becomes clear the boys are truly talented and they are more than just another indie-by-numbers band. Maybe they need to age a bit. After all, they are only 19.