Album Review: Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose- Live at Brixton

In November 2019, 10 years after the release of their cult-favourite debut I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, Bombay Bicycle Club played a sold out show at London’s iconic Brixton Academy in celebration of the album that started it all. The band’s latest release, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose- Live at Brixton, which features the album played in its entirety, frequently reaches the high points that can make a live record so special.

The band’s latest release […] frequently reaches the high points that can make a live record so special

Firstly, unlike so many other live albums, the record’s mixing is excellent. An almost perfect balance is struck between guitar and vocals as one never drowns the other out. Live at Brixton also utilities sharp basslines and thunderous guitars which explode at the culmination of standout tracks like ‘Cancel On Me.’ Perhaps even more enjoyable however is the celebratory spirit of the evening which permeates almost every song on the LP. The thunderous noise of the audience, which is engineered as to never completely swamp the mix, pays testament to a set of 12 songs that have proved to stand the test of time. The crowd roar into life at the Pixies-esque outro of ‘Lamplight,’ yet the highlight comes with the crowd’s response to the now classic indie anthem ‘Always Like This.’ On top of their reaction to the song’s instantly recognisable guitar riff, it is the crowd’s joyous and even slightly emotional rendition of the refrain, ‘I’m not whole’ that really conveys the electricity of that November evening to all of us who were not in attendance. It is moments like this that can make live records so powerful, and will almost certainly make that live music shaped hole in your heart that little bit wider.

The celebratory spirit of the evening […] permeates almost every song on the LP

However, the problem with the record arises when considering the package as a whole. The Brixton show featured 20 songs: a set which saw Bombay Bicycle Club perform the album front to back followed by an encore of other hits from across the band’s discography. None of these encore songs make it to this live release, meaning that the record actually features just over half of the songs that were played on the night. The intention of the package is to celebrate the debut album, and the focus on those 12 tracks is understandable, yet the decision not to include the entirety of the show only serves to leave the record with a sense of lacking. The record is short for a typical live release and I could not help but feel a slight sense of annoyance on hearing the crowd fade out with the record still under the one-hour mark. I would have liked there to have been a second disk with the rest of the set included, as to not take away from the I Had The Blues focus.

For longtime fans of the first record I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose- Live at Brixton will be appealing, yet Bombay Bicycle Club’s failure to share the full experience of the show ultimately leaves a slight feeling of frustration. The excellent production behind the record would have made the extra songs present in the original set sound particularly special. Unfortunately, as a result, the record risks slipping into insignificance shortly after release.