The Best of Biffy

When a band finds commercial success just after switching record labels, the requisite best-of from their former charges is never far off, so it comes as no surprise to see Beggars Banquet cobble this collection together, one that has had no input from the band members themselves.

Last year’s Puzzle, their debut offering for Warner Bros offshoot 14th Floor, was their most successful album to date, selling more than their previous three efforts combined. Long time fans bemoaned the fact that Biffy were seemingly sacrificing their artier fancies (i.e. stop-start arrangements) for the fast stadium-rock buck but, if nothing else, this collection highlights that the pumping power-pop anthem has long been a staple of their oeuvre.

Biffy Clyro earned kudos for marrying soaring melodies to crunching riffs; their first three albums charted a progressively heavier course, in a sense what Weezer – a Biffy favourite – would be doing if they sported greasy long hair and tattoos. However, this is a brow that Feeder and Foo Fighters had been furrowing years before, and Biffy, for the most part, sounded little more than a combination of the two – unsurprising, given that producer Chris Sheldon is the common denominator – the difference being that Biffy at least had a stronger appreciation of the album as a medium in itself.

Of course, the multitude of new fans that Puzzle attracted will no doubt want to hear what their new favourite band was up to while off the mainstream radar. The answer is, as this collection of singles will attest, pretty much more of the same, even if the hardcore following will have you believe different. The Biffy newcomer is clearly the demographic Beggars is aiming for, and the only one that will find any real use for this here platter. Given that it’s readily available at mid-price, it’s an affordable introduction to a solid, if unremarkable, outfit.