Culture Pigeon

‘Hindsight’s 20/20’, they say.

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.

For some reason though, despite having the opportunity to go for free, I passed up on the opportunity to see the band perform this album live in celebra�on of its 10th birthday in 2019. I have regre�ed this decision every waking moment since.

It's safe to say then when I heard they were releasing a recorded version of the performance I missed out on, I was overjoyed. From the very offset of their career, the band was lauded as an extremely engaging live act –domina�ng the floor with a cap�va�ng energy, control over the stage which is reflected in the incredible control the band exhibit over their instruments, seeming incapable of ever hi�ng a bum note. I bought the vinyl the day it came out and prac�cally sprinted home to play it, listening to both the original studio album and the live version in rapid succession of one another.

It’s incredible to see how much the band has matured in the ten years since they ini�ally came to fame. Lead singer Jack Steadman puts it best in his introduc�on to live performance of ‘The Hill’ – “we wrote a lot of these songs when we were 15 or 16, s�ll at school, doing our GCSEs… some of these songs are about very small, mundane parts of our life this song is literally about just si�ng on a hill behind the school where we went to.”

.” I’ve always loved that about Bombay Bicycle Club - the scrappy, youthful undertone beneath the complexity of their songs paired with their arguably rather geek-chic aesthe�c really resonated with what I thought of myself in school, a quality which I have always adored in the studio version of this record. However, when listening to the live album, I was fascinated to hear how the growth of the members as ar�sts really changed the dynamics of the songs (mostly) for the be�er, retaining, and even expanding on their resonance with me.

‘Emergency Contracep�on Blues’ packs a ferocious punch, immediately sha�ering any reserva�on you may have held towards ge�ng up and dancing, followed by an unsurmountable rendi�on of ‘Lamplight’, my favourite song from the studio album; the rumbling, stripped back bass of ‘these sca�ered flashes…’ is more divine than ever before, making for one of the most powerful choruses I have ever heard in music, ever. The recording engineer must be given massive credit when discussing this album’s aural brilliance, as it is in a moment like this where I feel the wonderful an�cipa�on surging through the room seeping out of my speakers - as though I am genuinely in the room with all of these strangers, joined in a love of music. It’s a feeling I was star�ng to forget, and it’s beau�ful to have that sensa�on returned somehow.

The group maintain incredible focus through ‘Evening/Morning’ and ‘Dust on the Ground’, as well as a spectacularly beau�ful rendi�on of ‘Ghost’, the lucid focus devoted to the impeccable rhythm sec�on revealing a previously unknown depth to a song I had always been quick to skip over - hearing the audience chant along the guitar refrain is a par�cular favourite moment of mine on the whole album. The rendi�on of the band’s most well-known song ‘Always like this’ is rapid in pace but manages to perfectly capture the overflowing excitement in the room, and the opening to ‘Cancel on me’ more than ever demands to be danced to, its dreamy ending delivering an incomparable sense of catharsis.

Steadman has managed to harness his idiosyncra�c vocal style brilliantly, demonstra�ng a brilliant discipline whilst retaining its spellbinding originality, best demonstrated on ‘The Hill’, where I believe the band as a unit peaks on this recording. The glistening guitar intro to ‘What if” and the complete reinven�on of ‘The Giantess’ both serve as haun�ng new addi�ons to two songs I deemed perfect. The fact the band manages to elevate almost every performance above its original counterpart, in a live se�ng, whilst retaining some of the youth that made their songs so compelling in the first place, surmounts this as my very favourite live album, and one which eased the uncertainty accompanying 2020 greatly. Listen to the original, then listen to this album – it might just change your life. - Ben Cooper serialculturepigeon@gmail.com