Bombay Bicycle Club

I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose

Release date: 6th July 2009

Label: Island Records

Bombay Bicycle Club release their astonishing debut album ‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ (recorded by long-term producer Jim Abbiss) on July 6th through Island Records.

It’s a beautifully literate and ambitious debut. From the dizzying MBV/M83 swoops and morning-after ruefulness of the LP’s opening song to the open-tuned, Appalachian folk feel of the record’s closing track, the album thrums with subtle invention and quiet emotional intensity. Fans of Bloc Party, Broken Social Scene and Bon Iver – or any mildly sensitive soul with a fondness for ricocheting guitar chords – will be utterly beguiled. Indie rock rarely gets to enjoy its innocence these days, but Bombay Bicycle Club know that’s exactly what makes it precious.

The band’s first single for Island - Always Like This, released in April 2009 – saw massive support from Radio 1 as Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens all became big fans, resulting in BBC being confirmed to play Radio 1’s ‘One Big Weekend’ event in May.

Jamie and Jack formed Bombay Bicycle Club after spending their early teens trying to sneak into 18+ gigs together. They were dissuaded at first by Jamie’s guitar-playing Dad, Neill MacColl (son of Ewan, sister of Kirsty), who once told Jack he should become a plumber rather than a musician if he ever wanted to make a decent living. Then Neill heard the astonishing cache of songs Jack had amassed in his bedroom with Garageband and a cheap guitar, and instantly changed his mind, offering to produce Bombay Bicycle Club’s first demos.

Bombay Bicycle Club’s first, self-released EP – 2007’s ‘The Boy I Used To Be’ – was a pure distillation of adolescent wonder, brilliantly chronicling their coming-of-age in real-time. Two of its songs have been resurrected and retooled for the album: ‘The Hill’, Jack’s shivery vocals sounding at once both wide-eyed and world-weary, is a memorable tumble through the heather; ‘Cancel On Me’ remains a startlingly dynamic piece of songwriting, and a live favourite. Their second Indie Chart-topping EP, ‘How We Are’, donates the plangent, reflective ‘Ghost’.

‘I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose’ is an indie record in the sense of being properly ‘independent’, its recording funded by the band’s management company, with Island only signing Bombay Bicycle Club after the wrap.

Everything that happens to Bombay Bicycle Club has to happen naturally. As soon as it starts to feel forced, they say, they’ll stop. So they’re not going to force you to like this record. You just will.