Bombay Bicycle Club: “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)” Track Review

By: Jillian Jacobs
Music Journalist

Five years after their last release, So Long, See You Tomorrow, and a hiatus that felt like ages; Bombay Bicycle Club (BBC) dropped their first single for their album in the works, Everything Else Has Gone Wrong, projected to come out Jan. 17, 2020.

Now I don’t know about y’all, but since BBC announced their hiatus in 2016 I’ve been begging for their arrival. The band took a break after their fourth album to venture off down different avenues. For a band that has been playing together since high school taking a break at the age 24 makes sense. Jack Steadman, BBC’s frontman, took on a project under the name Mr. Jukes and released God First an album that exemplifies soul and funk. Even their bassist, Ed Nash, took this time to create Toothless, a musical project where he created an EP and a well received album, The Pace of the Passing.

This break allowed the quartet to produce a piece that feels familiar yet distant, a step in the right direction. “Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)” wraps you up in a blanket and makes you feel warm and snug. BBC drew from all four albums to create a track that feels close to the past, yet yearns for the future. The whines of the guitar in the chorus illustrate a yearning for a significant other; or in BBC’s case a yearning to continue to create with one another.

“I can see where you are, dream where you are

Will the song never end?”

Steadman uses the same pulse of urgency in this phrase similar to that which can be heard in the album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose. The longing this line emits can be related to the distance the band had and the want for their togetherness. In the realm of this being about a significant other you can hear the pain in Steadman’s tonality. The idea of someone floating around in our head and our longing to feel this giddy forever is something we never want to end.

“I may not say it outwardly

So all I have are memories

Those looks at the start, the words in the dark

But never a flame, we just wanted the spark”

As the bridge comes in the feelings still remain. BBC reminisces on what they had in the beginning and this pondering ignites the spark. Because as a flame can die, a spark symbolizes zest and a birth of what’s yet to come. Before closing out we get a classic BBC chant of the chorus accompanied by a simple bass line and as the sample from the beginning increasingly begins to ring again they break out into euphoric madness.

“Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)” pays homage to the fans that could not stop thinking about the come back of BBC; those who did nothing but eat, sleep, and wake to a day where they’d be reunited again.