Biffy Clyro - Puzzle

Why Biffy Clyro are still billed as an Alternative Rock band is beyond me. The great line of musical genres has always been fuzzy and ambiguous, particularly where subsections of rock music are concerned, but with new album Puzzle, Biffy step away from the line and, for the most part place one foot onto the middle of the road. Album opener and current single Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies is an ambitious harbinger, with its stop/start guitars and gothic choirs, but sadly, this ambition doesn't last and the quality of song fluctuates throughout. Too often they are hell-bent on emulating their American heroes (Foo Fighters on Saturday Superhouse and Folding Stars), in the process forsaking whatever niche they had previously carved out for themselves. Melodic highlights - see Machines and Love Has a Diameter - are of an impressively high calibre but inconsistency reigns on an album that will no doubt go on to endear Biffy to the masses. [Finbarr Bermingham]