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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
i'm not puzzled..., 16 Aug 2007
It is November, 2004 - about a month since 'Infinity Land' was released - and it is still in my cd player/car stereo/mp3. I must have listened to it at least 50 times already. Like the previous album 'Vertigo Of Bliss' it took a few listens to REALLY appreciate - but once you did, whooa, what an album.
Fast-forward to August 2007 - and, painfully, I must admit that the same cannot be said of their eagerly-anticipated fourth album, 'Puzzle'. It seems I am not alone in predicting this album would 'happen' at some point. After all, the group had said they were after a 'pop' album - relinquishing the 'screaming' from previous work - in favour of sheening production.
le Biff have always maintained that they try to do something "different" with each album - and in that sense - it cannot be argued that 'Puzzle' is different from all their other albums. That does not mean that it is better - quite the opposite in my view.
BUT - let's put things in perspective - this IS a good album - if you give this album 1 star then surely you must hate it & Biffy that much then what's the point of you being here? But 1 star? For goodness' sake people, this is still Biffy Clyro, not Bucks Fizz or Bananarama. It is a good album - but compared with previous Biffy albums - it is unquestionably their worst, for me. I hesitate to say least 'experimental' because technically, it is experimental - they have never made such a pop-oriented, clean-sounding album - and this is unfortunately where the Biffsters fall flat on their face, and end up sounding like they've run out of ideas for the magic pot of ingredients. Unless of course they just wanted to get a 'pop' album out of their system - only to return to 'Infinity Land' ways in the near future?!: Discuss.
There is absolutely no point in me analysing particular songs, lyrical mishaps or supposed un-imaginative song structures - that is personal to each listener. Hence, if you loved 'Blackened Sky' but thought 'Vertigo...' and 'Infinity...' were 'crapper' - you may like this album more than I do. Or you may not, who knows?
One of the other reviewers hit the nail on the head - I stuck it in my cd player/car stereo/mp3 for weeks on end - but still I fail to love this album. It just doesn't grab me the way previous albums have. A shame really, and I may be verging on optimism here but maybe, just maybe, we'll hear a swift return to the ways of le Biffy of old...
I'd also like to point out that I'm not ranting and raving that people shouldn't like this album - it is a personal opinion, so calm down before you go all semi-mental on me. If you love it, great. I don't, and that's fair enough, end of.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There's just no middle ground..., 7 Aug 2007
Many bands these days seem to get hyped up on there first album, only to get slaughtered by the press on their second and then forgotten about by their third effort. Biffy on the other hand, have gradually floated to the surface, building up a hardcore contingent of fans along the way. `Puzzle' looks set to propel the band into the mainstream. The band hold some heavy weight respect having provided support for Muse at Wembley Stadium and are due to perform the same role for the Chilli Peppers at Hampden Stadium in August. A concert which I really am looking forward to!
Anyway, Puzzle is the 4th album to come from Biffy's locker. I came across them due to my brother being obsessed with them from day one. I really liked Blackened Sky and went to see them a number of times. When `Question and Answers' and `Infinity Land' came along I didn't appreciate them at the time because I felt they were just trying to over-complicate things for the sake of it. Over the last year though, I have listened to these albums more and now find them refreshingly different from what was out at the time. This made me wait for Puzzle with great anticipation...
With Puzzle it is like they have completed the full circle from when they began, and then stepped it up a gear. To break this down; with their first album it was the accessible indie/rock songs such as `27', `57' with some signs of prog in `Convex concave', which showed hints of their potential early on. The second album saw them exploring their guitar sounds and song structures more. While the 3rd album expanded their array of experimentation even more, through vocal harmonies, etc. Puzzles' roots clearly are from their first album, as they just wanted to go back to basics and make an album for the fun of blasting out a mixture of all out rock with acoustic masterpieces. Although the intro to `Living is a problem because everyone dies', along with numerous other points in the album, shows that they have taken bits from the two previous albums to put the `we haven't forgotten the progress we've made on the last two albums' stamp on some of the songs.
This is one of those albums you'll either love or hate, leaving no middle ground. If you do love it, it will make every other record in your collection seem inferior for a month or 6. `Puzzle' can be split into 3 large pieces; Rock, acoustic and rock ballady indie epic type songs. The main rockers are the singles; `Semi-mental' and `Saturday Superhouse', both are all out, brilliant sing along tunes. The title `Semi-mental' does not do the song justice as it is `FULLY MENTAL!'. The acoustic songs end the album with `Machines' and `drop it'. Listening to the lyrics in `Machines' its one of those ones that everyone can relate to at some time in their life. ie - not appreciating what they have and how lucky they are etc. Drop it on the other hand has got a kind of slow country feel to it; would be interesting to see if they took that sort of direction in the future. The last category is the sweeping, epic, rock ballady songs such as songs ending with /15ths and my favourite song on the album `The conversation is....' The easy comparison can be made to the Foo Fighters, but the reality is these are great songs, which definitely can be distinguished as Biffy's own.
This really is a great album and its almost as if Biffy knew when they were writing it that this would be the one that made them big with lyrics like - `looks like we made it' from `A whole child ago' and `This is the one' from `Now I'm everyone'. Its almost as if they're trying to send subliminal messages to people, to brainwash them into loving the album..................well it worked for me anyway!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent., 28 Aug 2007
Previous Biffy fans bemoan this LP in a really harsh way. I wasn't a Biffy fan before this album. It sits very nicely with my Idlewild and Hell Is For Heroes records... Only, maybe even better. Good quality from start to finish. Check it out unless you're an old fan of Biffy Clyro, then it seems that you should avoid, apparently!
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