Bombay Bicycle Club is a very unique—and uniquely complex—pop group. A series of three albums over as many years, supplemented by a handful of singles and EPs, brought BBC a slow rumble of appreciation in its native England. By rights, the band’s fourth album ought to be the one that brings it the recognition that’s so far eluded it in the U.S., because So Long, See You Tomorrow (Vagrant) is, even on first listen, an LP that announces a sea change in a group’s approach, in the vein of Revolver or Pet Sounds. That’s high praise, but So Long is, among other things, the most sonically complex of all the band’s records. BBC—guitarist/vocalist Jack Steadman, guitarist Jamie MacColl, drummer Suren de Saram and bassist Ed Nash—will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on the band.
Steadman: I was about 14 or 15 when a friend from school introduced me to jazz. We would take the train home together and make a quick stop at Kentish Town Library, taking out CDs by Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis and Charlie Christian, burning them and then returning them the next day. I played in a few jazz groups at school and was a fairly casual fan until about four or five years ago. I was in Tokyo and came across a jazz cafe filled with 10,000 records. The guy was playing mostly Blue Note records, hard bop from the mid-’50s to mid-’60s. He would let me admire each record he put on, and I instantly fell in love. Blue Note has such a consistent aesthetic. From the cover art by Francis Wolff and Reid Miles to the beautiful production of Rudy Van Gelder, one instantly recognises a Blue Note. I’ve been an avid collector ever since.
