Puzzle [Import]

Biffy Clyro | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 13, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Warner Classics UK
• ASIN: B000N4S8RA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,981 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Scottish rock trio Biffy Clyro (just Biffy to its fans) has bubbled through the underground quite comfortably for several years now, and whether or not Puzzle lifts the band up from under is irrelevant. It is a masterfully written, brilliantly executed hard-rock romp, and that’s more than enough reason to recommend it. "Living Is a Problem Because Everyone Dies" and "Saturday Superhouse" may sound familiar to anyone who’s slogged around the pits at a Vans Warped show or tuned into FM radio at all in the last five years, but there’s something that buoys these tracks beyond the familiar, rendering them fresh and exciting, filled with zeal and melodic traits that transcend the pure energy contained in each. Among the other outstanding standouts here are "A Whole Child Ago," "Love Has a Diameter," and "Fold Stars," but all tracks shine with scintillating beauty. An interesting-–and no doubt enduring-–record. --Jedd Beaudoin

Product Description

2007 album from this oddly-named British band sees them making the bold and ambitious record that will both satisfy their huge and devoted fanbase and win the hearts of countless others, cementing their reputation as the best and most important Rock band in the UK. The album includes the singles 'Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies' and 'Saturday Superhouse', which found the band breaking into the Top 15 for the first time, and received high critical acclaim with the NME. Mixed in New York by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, At The Drive-In) and with artwork by Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zepellin), Puzzle marks Biffy's transformation into a truly world-beating band. From the soaring 'Semi-Mental' to the bludgeoning punch of 'Saturday Superhouse' through the swollen intensity of the slow-burning 'As Dust Dances' and to the glorious foot-stomping live favorite 'Who's Got A Match?', Puzzle packs an emotional punch with 24-carat choruses shot through with Biffy's trademark sideways approach to songwriting. It also sees them anchor some of their most outlandish ideas (check the staggering '9/15ths') with the sort of clear and crisp melodies that this three-headed powerhouse have been hinting at since the days of 'Justboy' and '27'. Warner.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Their best album to date!, August 31, 2007

By 

S. MCBEATH "Stmcb" (uk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Puzzle (Audio CD)

Many bands these days seem to get hyped up on there first album, only to get slaughtered by the press on their second and then forgotten about by their third effort. Biffy on the other hand, have gradually floated to the surface, building up a hardcore contingent of fans along the way. `Puzzle' looks set to propel the band into the mainstream.

Puzzle is the 4th album to come from Biffy's locker. I came across them due to my brother being obsessed with them from day one. I really liked Blackened Sky and went to see them a number of times. When `Question and Answers' and `Infinity Land' came along I didn't appreciate them at the time because I felt they were just trying to over-complicate things for the sake of it. Over the last year though, I have listened to these albums more and now find them refreshingly different from what was out at the time. This made me wait for Puzzle with great anticipation...

With Puzzle it is like they have completed the full circle from when they began, and then stepped it up a gear. To break this down; with their first album it was the accessible indie/rock songs such as `27', `57' with some signs of prog in `Convex concave', which showed hints of their potential early on. The second album saw them exploring their guitar sounds and song structures more. While the 3rd album expanded their array of experimentation even more, through vocal harmonies, etc. Puzzles' roots clearly are from their first album, as they just wanted to go back to basics and make an album for the fun of blasting out a mixture of all out rock with acoustic masterpieces. Although the intro to `Living is a problem because everyone dies', along with numerous other points in the album, shows that they have taken bits from the two previous albums to put the `we haven't forgotten the progress we've made on the last two albums' stamp on some of the songs.

This is one of those albums you'll either love or hate, leaving no middle ground. If you do love it, it will make every other record in your collection seem inferior for a month or 6. `Puzzle' can be split into 3 large pieces; Rock, acoustic and rock ballady indie epic type songs. The main rockers are the singles; `Semi-mental' and `Saturday Superhouse', both are all out, brilliant sing along tunes. The title `Semi-mental' does not do the song justice as it is `FULLY MENTAL!'. The acoustic songs end the album with `Machines' and `drop it'. Listening to the lyrics in `Machines' its one of those ones that everyone can relate to at some time in their life. ie - not appreciating what they have and how lucky they are etc. Drop it on the other hand has got a kind of slow country feel to it; would be interesting to see if they took that sort of direction in the future. The last category is the sweeping, epic, rock ballady songs such as songs ending with /15ths and my favourite song on the album `The conversation is....' The easy comparison can be made to the Foo Fighters, but the reality is these are great songs, which definitely can be distinguished as Biffy's own.

This really is a great album and its almost as if Biffy knew when they were writing it that this would be the one that made them big with lyrics like - `looks like we made it' from `A whole child ago' and `This is the one' from `Now I'm everyone'. Its almost as if they're trying to send subliminal messages to people, to brainwash them into loving the album..................well it worked for me anyway!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sounds important, July 2, 2007

By 

Nobody - See all my reviews

This review is from: Puzzle (Bonus Dvd) (Hk) (Audio CD)

You know how Oasis CD's always sound big and urgent, like something great is going to happen? There's a lot of that here, and unfortunately nothing really does. "Folding Stars" is the best example of that, big guitars and the lead up to the multi-harmony chorus . . . that just isn't there. "Dust Dances" is the slow burner type that sounds promising, but as the band gets into it they keep stretching lines out looking for something to click that doesn't quite happen, it all sounds like the lead up to the passage they were looking for and never found. "Saturday" goes against their sound, it's too fast and loud, and again never quite gets to a memorable hook.

A very frustrating CD, because I liked their sound and voices and was kind of rooting for them to really hit it. The problem is the one thing they're missing is the most difficult of all, nothing else really matters if you can write hooks. And if you can't, no amount of good noise makes up for it, because it just drains in one ear and out the other. You can learn a lot about music, but you can't learn to hit the gong, you either have it or you don't. Sorry guys.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little overrated, but still great!, December 29, 2009

By 

John Harding "John" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Puzzle (Audio CD)

I bought this album because Kerrang gave it Album of the Year. I was not expecting what I heard, but it was still really good. Not very heavy at all, it sounds quite a bit like Sugarcult's "Start Static", so if you enjoyed that album, pick this one up as well.