On the eve of their Glastonbury appearance this Friday, Scottish rock gods Biffy Clyro have just announced their upcoming album, Futique. The will be the tenth studio by the trio, almost exactly four years since the release of “The Myth of the Happily Ever After” which came out back in October 2021.
Earlier this month they released the banging single, “A Little Love”, which claimed top spot on the UK Official Vinyl Singles Chart, and if that’s a taste of what’s to come there’s a lot to keep us excited.
Lead singer and guitarist/songwriter, Simon Neil explains, “‘Futique’ is an exploration of ideas, objects or relationships that exist across time – we are never aware when we do anything for the last time and there’s a beauty and sadness within that. What will be your ‘Futique’?”
The album title is centred around the idea of our digital lives, with instantly accessible memories on our phones and devices, and how that has altered our sense of relationships and memory. It’s a fascinating concept, for those of us who grew up pre-digital and still, possibly, fondly remember sitting around with family for slide nights (yes, I’m ancient), and the hundreds of moments of our childhood and youth that live on only inside our heads – how different it is now, where we capture every instant on every platform. It does make you contemplate how robust those memories will be, or if they will be stronger for ease of recall?
As with all good contemplations, this apparently led down a rabbit hole – this one of Neil reminiscing about his childhood and the things he loved then, which moved into pondering what he might miss of his current life in the future. It’s certainly a thought process we’ve all most-likely travelled, especially with the world shutting down in 2020, and I’d hazard a guess that it’s one that intensifies as we get older.
Simon Neil is an immensely talented songwriter, and I’m keen as fifty keen things to hear how this narrative will unfold in musical form, particularly when combined with the ever-glorious Biffy Clyro sound.
Futique is out on September 26, 2o25, and you can pre-order/pre-save here. Mon the Biff.
Photo credit: Eva Pentel
