Album reviews: Bombay Bicycle Club – ‘Everything Else has Gone Wrong’ and Gabrielle Aplin – ‘Dear Happy’

One of indie's most inventive bands make a welcome return, while singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin's third record feels engineered for pop virality

The quintessential indie quartet initially called it quits in 2016 but have since reunited (Bombay Bicycle Club)

Bombay Bicycle Club – Everything Else Has Gone Wrong

★★★★☆

When bands call it a day, it’s usually because of artistic differences, an album flop, or that they’ve run out of creative ideas. Not in the case of north-London indie four-piece Bombay Bicycle Club. In 2016, having been together since they were at school, they sold all their equipment and went their separate ways.

Singer Jack Steadman released a solo album as Mr Jukes and embarked on an Open University degree in astronomy; guitarist Jamie MacColl read war studies and philosophy; bassist Ed Nash put out an album as Toothless; and Suren de Saram became a session drummer. Now, four years since their number one, Mercury Prize-nominated record, So Lo Long, See You Tomorrow, the band are back with their fifth album, Everything Else Has Gone Wrong. It’s a solid return – the sound of a band both rejuvenated and continuing the multi-layered sound of their previous releases.

“Get Up” is a rousing brass-driven opener that sets the tone for an album that upholds Bombay Bicycle Club’s position as one of indie music's most inventive bands. What Steadman’s underwhelmingly soft vocals lack in emotional heft, the band make up for with dynamism and evolving sonorities and rhythms: the drive of the guitar riff and rolling drums in “Is It Real?”, the proggy syncopation and majestic trumpets in “I Worry Bout You”, the Afrobeat and exotic shakers and synth-flute sample of “Do You Feel Loved“.

The rhythmic delivery of Steadman's vocals propels the title track towards its intense layering of synths and insistent repetition of lyrics that sum up where the band find themselves after their hiatus: “I guess I’ve found my peace again/ And yes, I’ve found my second wind”. There’s more euphoria in the circling synth build up of the brilliantly introspective “Let You Go”.

There’s much to recommend the lyrics here, especially in melodic highlight “Good Day”, a humorously melodramatic response to the quarter-life crisis: “I just want to have a good day/ And it’s only me that’s standing in my way… First my looks and now my friends/ Day by day I’m losing them, losing collagen, losing elastin”.

Festival stages will be much more interesting for their comeback. (Elisa Bray)

Gabrielle Aplin – Dear Happy

Aplin rose to fame with a song in a John Lewis Advert (Press image)

★★★☆☆​

Since Gabrielle Aplin’s cover of “The Power of Love” shot her to super – albeit fleeting – stardom eight years ago, she has worked hard to prove she’s more than just a John Lewis Christmas ad.

The fruits of her efforts have been two wildly distinct albums, and the third is no different. An energetic, if a little teenager-y, record dominated by electronica and synth-pop, Dear Happy signals a departure from the folk-pop and soft-rock that characterised her previous work. Full of upbeat, jubilant songs, it is expertly engineered for pop virality.

“Nothing Really Matters” combines Aplin’s distinguished, somewhat Swedish-inflected vocals, with a punchy chorus à la 1989-era Taylor Swift. “My Mistake”, though, is a welcome pause in the deluge of joy. With it, Aplin returns to her balladry roots, all swirling melodies and swelling piano chords.

Behind the electro-pop production, Aplin’s lyrics deliver heartfelt and hard-earned wisdom derived from her recent struggles with her mental health. “Kintsugi” finds power in fragility: “‘Cause now that I’m shattered, I’m all kinds of me/ Was knocked off the shelf but I’m also complete.”

Dear Happy’s unapologetic cutseyness is mostly to its credit, bar moments where the sweetness becomes saccharine. (Annabel Nugent)