Review Summary: Biffys greatest achievement to date. Best vocals, best lyrics and best music. One of the greatest albums to be produced in a very long time. A MUST listen.
The distorted bass rings its deformed tone and we know we are once again in the hands of those three Scottish lads. "Bodies In Flight" is the song in question, of course. This song does nothing more than get straight to the point in its simple task; to open an album. Building subconsciously throughout, you are left without the predictive nature of so many album openers. In addition to being a great song, we are in fact given an insight to the Biffy Clyro that 'Vertigo...' shall present us with ( and by god its a good 'un).
Traditional to Biffy, "The Ideal Height" starts with a quirky clean intro, that drags without bore. Although there are undeniably pop elements to this track, such as the 'festival chorus' (never bad in the right context), it has the grunge feel that unifies its unique quality. The trio exclaim yet another rhetorical question- "How well do you think you know me?" along to a typical overdriven outro. Great song.
Biffy Introduce us to an array of new instruments (at least from them) in "With Aplomb". An acoustic Guitar and a string section form a lot of the meat of this song. Chilling as this song may seem, it is a real credit to the maturity of the music that this band produce. Beautiful harmonies and once again a hardcore finale are the real key points in this epic.
Fuel filled and very fast, "A Day Of" is over in just over two action packed minutes- excuse the cliché. The latter of the track is beautiful in its simplistic complexity, an oxymoron that works. You may wish to listen to this track twice in a row, you can often here the final couple of seconds and forget the rest with this type of song.
Which leads me to the controversially named "Liberate The Illiterate/ A Mong Among Mingers". Skewed riff and punchy call and answer style intro are ticked off on the to do list for this one. Kicking into a heavy pre chorus and then chorus and then repeating, the former seems as if it can not be championed; however the latter half of this song is some of the best Biffy writing to date, if not the best. Definitely a contender for best track of the album.
"I just wish we all could betray"- Once more the band deliver with spot on vocal work, however, rather unfashionably (even for Biffy) this is a solely vocal oriented track. It is their most far a strayed track thus far, with the organ even belittling the guitar. Describing this song is extremely hard, my only suggestion is that you must listen to it to understand how dynamic this track is.
We meet another festival song with "Questions and Answers"; a simple riff and lyrics that once again are picked up so easily. Along with this is "Eradicate The Doubt", it gets the fans moshing and it the throats hurting. Both these are contenders for best track, the best consecutive song set on the album.
It seems so counter intuitive to call this worst track on the album, it is, in my opinion ranked last (despite an outro that I adore). "When The Fractions Fractioned" Is another off set song, that never really gets going. It is ironic how despite that quality it sill holds the content of a great song.
"Toys Toys Toys Choke, Toys Toys Toys" has one of the best introductions to a song I've heard, muted into hardcore octaves, the guitar is a visage in the latter half of this song. It does, after a while, become repetitive; although Im sure many would call this the best song on the album. Shouting takes centre stage again, again always in the correct context.
And now we come to the symphonic complexity that is "All The Way Down; Prologue/ Chapter 1". Coming in 3 main sections, the lyrics are heartfelt throughout, and the guitar brings together all the best guitar styles from both albums released at the time by the Band. By the end of the six minute affair I guarantee you will have reminisced something personal to you; it is an insanely touching track. Sheer class.
Another dissonant intro brings us to "A Man Of His Appalling Posture". Throughout this track there are qualities to make it a total classic, it does however, seem that the band were tiring towards the end of recording (I must add here that they recorded this entire album in one single day). Nonetheless, it is a feel good song with a depressing subtext- by gosh Biffy love and Oxymoron.
"Now The Action Is On Fire" is a song which seems to have all the bits that were taken out of all the others and just stuck together in one massive hybrid. Featuring extended movements, it can be boring to listen to this. Then the album ends. Or does it? No, in fact. We are then graced with the hidden track (connected to the latter track) called "Ewens True Mental You". The soft dissonant guitar backed with a oily baseline and quite drums, this is really one of the best parts of the album, honestly.
And so they were two albums down. The second definitely the better of the two, simply due to its sheer audacity. I truly believe this to be the best album a band have produced in the 21st century so far, I dare you to question it.
Recommended tracks
The Ideal Height
Liberate the Illiterate / A Mong Among Mingers
Diary Of Always
Questions and Answers
All The Way Down
