After banging on the intro of Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies being too long, it turns out that it works rather well as an album opener. In fact, that whole song works really well as an album opener. It’s an incredibly powerful statement of Biffy Clyro’s intent.

Sadly, something must have been lost in translation, because what follows is not what the first track promised. Instead, there are some tired old rock songs dumped in a heap, including one (Saturday Superhouse) that ends curiously with the riff from The Knack’s My Sharona. The whole grungy mess is a massive disappointment.

There are breaks in the cloud, though. This Conversation Is… and Folding Stars see the band push their Foo Fighters influence to its furthest limit and pull a couple of good songs out of the bag - the latter a heartfelt tribute to vocalist Simon Neil’s mother, who died in 2004.

Puzzle isn’t a bad album but it fails to hit its potential by a long way, which is a real shame. Fans are sure to still find plenty to love, though.

Label: 14th Floor
Website: www.biffyclyro.com
Release date: 28th May 2007

Tracklist:

1. Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies
2. Saturday Superhouse
3. Who’s Got A Match
4. As Dust Dances
5. A Whole Child Ago
6. The Conversation Is…
7. Now I’m Everyone
8. Semi-mental
9. Love Has A Diameter
10. Get Fucked Stud
11. Folding Stars
12. 9/15ths
13. Machines