Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day

While you shouldn’t necessarily judge an album by its guest spots, the cast of Bombay Bicycle Club’s sixth seems to not only cement where the quartet are at themselves, but also how they’re viewed among their peers. Present and correct are modern guitar innovators from both sides of the pond (Nilüfer Yanya and Jay Som), a BRIT-winner (Holly Humberstone), and a bona fide music legend (Damon Albarn); BBC might have started life a decade ago as a fairly straight-up indie band, but now they’re the sort of ever-evolving unit whose little black book is bulging. ‘My Big Day’ is ample proof as to why. A record that feels effortlessly comfortable in its own skin whilst still managing to tread new ground, it’s the best the band have ever sounded. Whether in the buoyant, brass-aping keyboard motif that opens ‘Just A Little More Time’, or the more ominous drums’n’drones of ‘I Want To Be Your Only Pet’, everything rings with supreme confidence. ‘Turn The World On’ is classic, sparkling Bombay, whereas ‘Rural Radio Predicts The Future’’s two-minute instrumental concludes with almost hyperpop bleeps; the Albarn-featuring ‘Heaven’ is loose and trip-hoppy, while highlight ‘Meditate’ (with Nilüfer Yanya) climbs the guitar scales into a twisted climax. A triumph.