The release of any new Biffy Clyro album is a cause for celebration – 23 years on from their debut, Blackened Sky, they remain the UK’s most consistently exciting, endlessly inventive and emotionally heavyweight rock band. But with Futique, that excitement and anticipation is twinned with relief at the fact it exists at all. Ahead of going in to record it, there was a crushing question mark over whether Biffy were going to continue. Luckily, their friendship was strong enough to see them through the rough patch, which, rather than tearing them apart, informed the mood and the themes explored on the record.
A sense of nostalgia is up front and centre in Futique – the title is a portmanteau of “future” and “antique”, the idea of cherishing a moment when it happens while recognising it as something that will later be remembered with fondness. It’s a concept that runs through the album lyrically, and in the warmth of the music, not least in opener A Little Love, an unashamed lighter-waver of an anthem that pays tribute to long-term friendship. A Thousand And One, meanwhile, is a heartfelt mea culpa set to a nonchalant groove and gentle melody.
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