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Nov 07, 2023 Web Exclusive By Alfie Verity

Bombay Bicycle Club have a reputation to uphold. Though their music has played around with various styles and genres over the years, to different levels of success, their ability to make giddy, addictive bangers has rarely faltered. Whether on old-school floorfiller “Always Like This” or the glowing, romantic 2019 comeback hit “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You),” their releases have always held the capability to uplift in a sincere and likeable way that has kept them in a long-term high regard by indie-pop appreciators. On My Big Day, their sixth studio album, they continue to deliver on expectations. This record is Bombay Bicycle Club at their most exuberant: it’s a release seemingly designed solely with the intention of creating a collective feeling of joy for its listeners.

My Big Day is a handful of sunshine, a party buffet of shimmering indie-pop, attended by all-star musical guests: Damon Albarn, Nilüfer Yanya, and even Chaka Khan all arrive to partake in the fun. There are songs on here which provide a familiar flavour of Bombay Bicycle Club’s usual lighthearted sparkle (“Turn the World On,” in fact, was produced alongside Ben Allen, who the band worked with on their sunny 2011 song “Shuffle”), but the collaborative nature of My Big Day makes the album feel more ambitious than their previous work.

The album best achieves its joyous peak when its various visitors feel like an integral collaborative element of their respective songs, rather than just an added quirk or afterthought. Jay Som sounds beautiful on “Sleepless”—the artist’s delicate, dreamy vocals swim in pleasant tandem with frontman Jack Steadman’s singing. Chaka Khan is a confident delight on “Tekken 2,” her iconic voice bringing the track’s buzzing instrumentation to a delightful high, and the brilliant Nilüfer Yanya’s raspy sound is buoyed by scratchy guitars on “Meditate.” Alternatively, Britpop icon Damon Albarn feels a little bit underused on “Heaven,” a cheery-but-safe track that feels contrasting to its guest star’s usual penchant for risk and wackiness.

Though this collaborative element of the album feels like its most obviously notable characteristic, plenty of memorable moments come from the Bombay Bicycle Club boys riding solo. Single “I Want to Be Your Only Pet” is the album’s only moody moment, a palate cleanser which makes its mark with a hooky chorus, telling the story of a person’s desire for care and freedom in a relationship which provides neither. It’s the exact kind of kooky-but-emotive fun that has made the band such a long-term favourite in the British indie scene.

Otherwise, “Onward” is a great closing track that encapsulates My Big Day’s optimistic, effervescent nature well. Here the band reflect sanguinely on the tangled, contradictory nature of life (“we’re all dying/we’re all the kindest and the meanest”) using a whole-hearted instrumentation that closes out My Big Day with such a triumphant feel you can almost hear audience applause.

As its title suggests, My Big Day is Bombay Bicycle Club’s grandest effort yet. It’s a ray of sunlight which, even when it doesn’t totally stick the landing, is a plainly lovely listen. It mostly manages to avoid that saccharine positivity that a lot of grandiose indie-pop can succumb to, probably because the band have such a trustworthy history of making peppy, danceable music that it feels genuine, and the fact that plenty of the tracks are just irresistibly sweet. On this, their sixth album, Bombay Bicycle Club have both embraced maximalism and sharpened their existing style. It pays off well; no wonder they sound so happy. (www.bombaybicycle.club)

Author rating: 7/10