Biffy Clyro – Balance, Not Symmetry (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) //Warner Bros// (Released 26th July)

Description

£21.99 – 2xLP

Biffy Clyro today share a soundtrack album of original material called Balance, Not Symmetry, written for the film of the same name, which frontman Simon Neil collaborated on with director Jamie Adams. Regarding the collaboration, Simon Neil explains “On meeting Jamie, we realised early on that we’d both had to deal with grief at a relatively young age and so it was interesting to talk about how we’d both dealt with it and the effect it had on us – and this is the main crux of the film, delving into the lonely world of grief and loss and coming out the other side”.

The 17-song Balance, Not Symmetry soundtrack explodes into life with the title track, which tightly packages Biffy’s angular rhythms with the kind of sky-bound hook that they’ve established as a hallmark of their sound. The track is accompanied by an official video. Also directed by Adams, it intercuts the band’s visceral live performance with footage from the film.

While the collection often explores Biffy’s gift for arena-filling anthems on the likes of ‘All Singing and All Dancing’, ‘Tunnel and Trees’ and ‘Touch’, the album as a whole leans towards introspection and experimentation. The foreboding yet elegiac ‘Gates Of Heaven’ is quite unlike anything that the band have recorded before, ‘Colour Wheel’ switches to a more ethereal ambience and ‘Touch’ echoes the emotional power of previous Biffy classics such as ‘Many Of Horror’ and ‘Re-arrange’.

The album also includes three mood-setting instrumentals (‘Pink’, ‘Navy Blue’ and ‘Yellow’) plus a studio recording of ‘Different Kind Of Love’, which originally featured on last year’s MTV Unplugged album. It was co-produced by Adam Noble and Biffy Clyro, and recorded at AIR Studios, Monnow Valley Studio and ICP Studios.

Filmed in Scotland during Autumn, the film follows American student Caitlin (Laura Harrier, BlacKkKlansman) after her father’s funeral, leaving her grieving mother (Kate Dickie, Game Of Thrones) behind to return to her third-year studies at the Glasgow School of Art. There she juggles her grief and end-of-year presentation with meeting a new guy, Rory (newcomer Scott Miller), and a rupture in her relationship with her housemate and BFF Hannah (Bria Vinaite, The Florida Project). Can she again find balance in her turbulent life?

Tracklisting:

1. Balance, Not Symmetry
2. All Singing And All Dancing
3. Different Kind Of Love
4. Sunrise
5. Pink
6. Colour Wheel
7. Gates Of Heaven
8. Fever Dream
9. Navy Blue
10. Tunnels And Trees
11. Plead
12. The Naturals
13. Yellow
14. Touch
15. Jasabiab
16. Following Master
17. Adored