N O E G E PI
R U T L CU
‘Hindsight’s 20/20’, they say.
26
It’s easy to consider 2020 a lost year when looking on in hindsight – our lives collec�vely ground to a halt three months into the year, and the events that followed have completely changed the way that we live. I can see why many would want to write the year off completely, but it’s important to remember, in discoun�ng the year so flippantly we are doing the people who worked so hard in redeeming it a massive injus�ce. Although it may seem a generally hellish year, 2020 did provide some real beauty, not only in communi�es across the country but also in the ar�s�c world. A year presen�ng a set of impossible circumstances that saw ar�sts truly unite, not only in collabora�on with one another but also with their audiences, giving ar�sts a chance to truly show their apprecia�on for their fans. This segues me nicely into the album that helped me power through 2020 when things got difficult: Bombay Bicycle Club's, 'I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose, live at Brixton’.
I’ve been familiar with Bombay Bicycle Club for a while now – I first listened to their iconic ‘Always Like This’ gazing moodily out the car window on a par�cularly cold winter’s night in late 2019, and the experience has ingrained itself into the very fibre of my being. It amazed me how such a danceable song could be so very melancholy, which turned out to be a common trait in all of their other songs. I was absolutely hooked, and have never looked back. I mounted an expedi�on to the nearest HMV the very day a�er this, determined to secure a copy of their debut album, and there was a long period following this where I would simply listen to it over and over again endlessly, sparing no �me for anything else. There’s an ethereal quality to it, underpinning every track – an eclec�c assortment of influences amalgama�ng seamlessly, displaying a graceful, erudite technicality, converging towards one of the most strikingly original alterna�ve rock records ever released.
