Myth of The Happily Ever After

CD1 THE MYTH OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER

1. DumDum
2. A Hunger In Your Haunt
3. Denier
4. Separate Missions
5. Witchs Cup
6. Holy Water
7. Errors In The History Of God
8. Haru Urara
9. Unknown Male 01
10. Existed
11. Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep

CD2 A CELEBRATION OF ENDINGS: LIVE AT BARROWLAND BALLROOM

1. North Of No South (Live)
2. The Champ (Live)
3. Weird Leisure (Live)
4. Tiny Indoor Fireworks (Live)
5. Worst Type of Best Possible(Live)
6. Space (Live)
7. End Of (Live)
8. Instant History (Live)
9. The Pink Limit (Live)
10. Opaque (Live)
11. Cop Syrup (Live)

Biffy Clyro have today released the new project ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’.

‘The Myth’ is a homegrown project that represents a reaction to their #1 album ‘A Celebration of Endings’ and a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year. It is the ying to the yang of ‘A Celebration’, the other-side-of-a-coin, a before-and-after comparison: their early optimism of 2020 having been brought back to earth with a resounding thud. It’s the product of a strange and cruel time in our lives, but one that ultimately reinvigorated Biffy Clyro.

“This is a reaction to ‘A Celebration of Endings’,” says vocalist / guitarist Simon Neil. “This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months. There was a real fortitude in ‘A Celebration’ but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives. Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”

Grounded by lockdown, Biffy Clyro recorded ‘The Myth’ in a completely different way to how they approached ‘A Celebrations’. Rather than spending months in Los Angeles, they traded one West Coast for another by recording for just six weeks in their rehearsal room (converted DIY style into a fully functional studio by rhythm section brothers James and Ben Johnston) in a farmhouse closer to their homes.

The trio went in with the intention of completing some unfinished songs from ‘A Celebration’, but instead ‘The Myth’ took over as it started to take shape late in 2020, with everything written and recorded within a ten-mile radius. Traditionally, 90% of Biffy songs have been written in Scotland before the band head to London or Los Angeles for recording, but this represented the first time they’ve ever recorded in their homeland. As Simon jokes, “It’s our first full-on tartan album!”

Anticipation for ‘The Myth’ built after Biffy Clyro launched the album with the adventurous, multi-faceted ‘Unknown Male 01’ and then the feral anger of ‘A Hunger In Your Haunt’. The new single ‘Errors In The History of God’ blends Biffy’s inimitable flair for balancing arena-scale dramatics, powerful immediacy, and loud-and-quiet dynamics with lyrics which address complex emotions about the condition of the world around us.

Simon Neil says, “Sometimes I just wonder why we’re here and what are we doing? Everything is combining to make things worse, even when people have the best of intentions. Looking at myself, I’m like, ‘What have you done to make this world better?’ I think my generation and older are a bit more responsible for that than we’d like to admit. We grew up in an era when the things we had to worry about weren’t as much of a crisis as what younger people have to consider today.”

Elsewhere, ‘The Myth’ mixes experimental flourishes with flashes of old school Biffy. ‘Existed’ is the moment that shaped the record an elegant expression of self-doubt that redefines the sonics of the band’s catalogue of vulnerable slowburners, while ‘DumDum’ is an even bigger departure, having been constructed primarily around soft synths sampled from Simon’s voice. And ‘Slurpy Slurpy Sleep Sleep’ is just as audacious a closer as ‘Cop Syrup’ from ‘A Celebration’. It also represents one of a selection of “easter eggs” or “turns of phrase” that subtly complement and contrast the two records.

A recurring concept of the album is the power of personal convictions, which have taken on an almost religious fervour via the echo chambers of social media and news platforms. But that idea has the nuance to rise above contrasting sides of an argument, arguing that greater unity and open-mindedness is the only way forward. Elsewhere, it spans everything from gaslighting to the ultimate devotion of cults and the beautiful failure of a Japanese racehorse.