Biffy Clyro - Infinity Land repress

Well. This was kind of inevitable, wasn't it? When the pre-orders were put up for it on Banquet, I was a bit low on money and couldn't really justify spending a lot on a record. The release date came and went, and I still didn't feel flush enough to buy it. I kept checking Banquet's stock in the hope that somehow I'd be able to convince myself to get it but it never happened, and then that stock reduced to zero. This bummed me out so much that I promptly bought it upon spotting it in a record shop for, as it turned out, roughly the same price I would have paid from Banquet. It all works out in the end (apart from for my wallet, which is crying).

8 years after release, this artwork still makes zero sense to me. The gasmask head man is clearly some kind of Mickey Mouse parody, everything else is a complete mystery. Still cool though. Here's one of my few minor quibbles with this repressing: this sleeve lacks the delightful ridged texture of the insert of the original CD version (no idea if this texture was present on the first pressing or not) which is a shame because I loved that ridged paper. Ah well. Should mention this came in a plastic sleeve like the other two, which is a plus.

Old pictures of Biffy are the best pictures of Biffy, let's be honest. Fringes all over the place. It's fairly sparse inside this gatefold but I suppose that provides a nice counterpoint to the relative chaos of the outside of the sleeve.

That chaos? Oh yeah. It's here. The font of Infinity Land is pretty weird, to the point of being almost illegible, so good luck trying to read the song titles without clicking through to the large version of the image. They're all great though, you can trust me on that one.

The inner sleeves are among the best I've seen. The subtle dark grey artwork on the sleeves provide a nice backdrop to the lyrics to the whole album, written I believe in Simon's handwriting (which is also slightly difficult to read). Absolutely gorgeous.

And look at this. Just look at it. The marbling on this is a bit more obvious than on the previous two, and I love the shade of blue-grey that they chose. I don't think I need to say anything more here, so I'm not going to.

This is my favourite album of all time. No doubt about it. I've written about why I love it previously, so to save time I'll just put that link here if you are interested. It's a hugely important album to me and I still listen to it very regularly. In fact, in September I was lucky enough to see the band live yet again and was treated to the unexpected delight that was Strung To Your Ribcage (track 2 from this album) while stood next to the person I've needed to see it with for several years. Single-handedly one of the best moments of my life thus far, and something that I couldn't write this post without mentioning due to how incredibly happy it makes me. Something else I need to mention is the B-sides from the album which are included on this release. The 6 are all at least decent songs, but the champion among them is Bonanzoid Deathgrip. A perfect slice of ridiculous old Biffy, it's a screaming whirlwind that ricochets around your ears. That it never made it onto an album (and thus will probably not get played live until the band hopefully do a B-sides and rarities tour in the distant future) is a shame, but it really wouldn't fit on this album. Absolutely brilliant though.

This post also marks the last of the Beggars represses, and I have to say I'm slightly sad about that. They've done a really good job of these and I've enjoyed returning to semi-regularly buying Biffy vinyl. It's a pity Puzzle is unlikely to ever get a vinyl pressing, because I'm sure that would be a beautiful thing indeed. Roll on February and the (already pre-ordered) Opposites boxset.