Music reviews

Biffy Clyro

A Celebration of Endings

Twenty-five years down, Simon Neil and co’s enthusiasm for their craft is undiminished.

A Celebration Of Endings sits among Biffy Clyro’s tightest, most streamlined albums.

What the album lacks in humour it makes up in fervour, with opener North Of No South fusing barbershop-style vocals with a driving motorik rhythm.

Album closer Cop Syrup builds layers of jangling guitars and rising strings (nodding to early cinematic Radiohead) until it crescendoes with screaming and crashing guitars.

A Celebration Of Endings certainly sits among the band’s best albums.

7/10

James Dean Bradfield

Even in Exile

A concept album about the life and death of Chilean folk singer and activist Victor Jara, Even In Exile is a labour of love for James Dean Bradfield.

The Manic Street Preachers frontman sets to music words written by poet Patrick Jones to evoke Jara’s bravery.

The man who was a cultural ambassador for President Salvador Allende’s government was tortured and murdered after the US-backed coup that installed Augusto Pinochet as dictator in September 1973.

Much of the album is impressionistic rather than just biographical – and three of the 11 tracks are instrumentals.

There are also enough crunching guitars and soaring choruses to please Manics fans.

Closer Santiago Sunrise is suitably elegiac, with Bradfield singing “memories of battles lost have never gone away” in tribute to a man whose legacy endures after nearly 50 years.

8/10

Marsicans

Ursa Major

Ursa Major, the debut from Northern boys Marsicans, bursts open with soaring guitars tracked over catchy riffs and hard hitting bass.

James Newbigging’s thick and smooth vocals, a little bit Tim Burgess, a little bit Vampire Weekend, add depth to the songs.

These Days is bound to be a big hit and could amp up the festival crowds with its smooth, lazy, low-fi guitar riffs, while Can I Stay Here Forever takes risks with big, theatrical chord changes.

Not just another indie pop band – Ursa Major pack a punch. Whimsical indie rock at its best.

7/10

Sea Girls

Open Up Your Head

This debut album from indie rockers Sea Girls is an enjoyable romp through late night antics, the stench of experience and the unbearable feelings of longing and belonging – a theme that repeats itself constantly throughout.

The album is pretty relatable to many – to the teens heading off to university where a plethora of experiences await, to those who are a bit older, who clambered through those awkward times.

There’s no denying it’s a fantastic festival-ready offering with plenty of catchy riffs.

Still, it’s another typical indie album, lacking the ingredients to be a groundbreaking piece.

Highlights include Damage Done, Do You Really Wanna Know, Closer and Weight In Gold.

7/10