Biffy Clyro – Mountains

Words: Rob Sampson

Metaphorical nonsense is the order of the day in this one-off single from Biffy Clyro. The song has been receiving a large amount of airplay recently as it seems that they’re now experiencing the full power and marketing skills of a major label, taking their music to the masses. As would be expected from a band that has been working with a major record label, the band now have an expensively produced sound to their new single, they’ve even incorporated a piano throughout the song. Without using the phrases “selling out”, or “commercial shite”, it’s probably quite reasonable to say that they've totally lost their edge and have started to sound like Feeder. Although they get props for the production, for the melody and for the hooks, their point score goes into negative figures with some truly dire lyrics. As mentioned above, metaphor overload is on the menu. Simon Neil is the mountains and the sea, he starts off by taking “a bite out of a mountain range, thought my teeth would break the mountains down”, and he also writes a note to the jungle (?!?), with the jungles response being, “it wrote me back that I was never crowned king of the jungle, so there’s and end to my horizon”. Seriously, is there any need for such ghastly lyrics? And so it continues, with more lyrical cliché with, “Nothing lasts forever, except you and me. You are my mountains, you are my sea”. I’ve never been so offended by something like this in such a long time. As Biffy Clyro undoubtedly gain hoards of new fans from drab office environments tuning into commercial radio up and down the country, I can’t help but cringe when I see Margaret the 43 year old admin dullard singing along to “I am a mountain, I am the sea”. Biffy Clyro could well be the next Stereophonics, and that is certainly no good thing.

Released: 25.08.08