Opposites is the sixth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro, which was released on 28 January 2013. A double album, Opposites was originally announced as a pair of albums, The Land at the End of Our Toes and The Sand at the Core of Our Bones, which later became the names of the individual discs of the album. The album features 20 songs across two discs. There is also a single disc version with 14 selected tracks. As of July 2016, the album has sold 260,720 copies in the UK.
Overview
"Stingin' Belle" was the first recorded song to be publicly played, debuting on BBC Radio 1 on 31 July 2012. The song was released online along with a video consisting of material made of the album's recording in Los Angeles and the band's live shows. Although at times discussed as a single, the song was only made available through digital download. Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell features as a guest vocalist on the songs "Opposite" and "Accident Without Emergency".
The first physical single from the album, "Black Chandelier", debuted on BBC Radio 1 and on YouTube on 19 November 2012. The release of the single was announced to take place on 14 January 2013. Actor Ricki Hall disclosed on his Twitter account that the video for the song was being filmed. The video was released on 11 December.
On 14 December, actor Ev Salomon revealed on Twitter that filming of the video for "Victory Over the Sun" had been finished.
Several songs from the album were publicly played live before the release. On 22 September 2012, at the iTunes show in London, the band has already been playing five songs from Opposites: "Stingin' Belle", "Sounds Like Balloons", "The Joke's on Us", "Modern Magic Formula", and "Victory Over the Sun". On 20 November, the band played "Black Chandelier" and "Opposite" on Later... with Jools Holland with guest support musicians Mike Vennart and Richard "Gambler" Ingram (ex.Oceansize, British Theatre)
The single "Biblical" was featured first on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1 in the UK and on Gary Cool's Rock Dimension in S.A. On Sunday 3 February 2013, Opposites topped the UK Albums Charts, becoming Biffy Clyro's first number one album.
The band posted a short teaser video for the single "Opposite" on YouTube. At the end of the teaser, the band said that the video would be released on 15 May. The artwork for the single was also revealed during the video. It was then revealed that the single "Opposite" would be released 24 June 2013.
Background
There were three years between the releases of Only Revolutions and Opposites, marking the longest gap in Biffy Clyro's publishing history. During this time, the band's rising popularity saw them perform an increasing number of shows, which delayed the work on the new album. The band had been reported to work on the new songs as soon as the spring of 2010. In March 2011, Simon Neil told BBC that he had "15 or 16 songs" ready for the album and that the record would get done "as soon as [they] got off the road". The band played the first new song to later appear on Opposites, entitled "Joke's on Us", on 3 July 2011 at Milton Keynes, in what was set as one of their last gigs before heading to the studio.
The main recording sessions for the album were at The Village Studios in West Los Angeles. They started in early 2012 and lasted for five months. The producer was GGGarth Richardson, returning to the work with Biffy Clyro after producing two of their previous albums, Puzzle and Only Revolutions. Also returning from Only Revolutions was the orchestra and choir conductor David Campbell. The keyboard parts were played by Jamie Muhoberac, who also performed on Only Revolutions. In May 2012, NME announced that the band was going to release two albums, The Land at the End of Our Toes and The Sand at the Core of Our Bones. A month later, it was reported that the band "changed their mind" on the double title. Simon Neil revealed the album's final title on 31 July 2012 on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1. The release date has been announced on 18 September 2012 on Biffy Clyro's website.
In an interview with Q, the band claimed to have had written 45 songs by the end of 2011. That number was said to give them a feeling of necessity to make Opposites a double album. "There's no filler on this one", Ben Johnston assured in an NME feature. Simon Neil said on Lowe's BBC show: "We wanted to make the first double album that you could enjoyably listen to from start to finish".