Slamming a big old Black Country stamp on the industry, sealing the (record) deal with tracks like Shithouse, This Here Ain’t Water, Desperate Breakfast, and Trees. Big Special release their debut album Postindustrial Hometown Blues. Seemingly knocking on the industry door after appearing from nowhere, this album delivers raw stories, poetry in music form, an unapologetic roughness. We warm to the humanity, the lazy but considered hooks that return when you’re sleeping, the life in these songs.
The classic songwriting and the modern production bring a nostalgic yet curious feel to their sound. With the bluesy chords and vocals smashed in with the crunchy synth lines and concrete drums giving the songs a modern grit. The album tells us that Joe wears his heart on his sleeve, and he handles it with both grace and humour without distracting from reality.
Joe shouts with a punk raspiness, a roughness to match his words, but moments of majestic melody remind us of sea shanties or nursery rhymes. Drummer Cal shouts from the sidelines like some sort of pirate or childish football hooligan, but we know it excites us!
“Another tantrum banging on the roof”
“Come to smack the day onto your cheeks”
“Crying at the moon for the right to croon”
My favourite lyrics from This Here Ain’t Water - Really depicting the romance of a mundane, perhaps difficult life. If not just describing sadness on a rainy day. “I mock joggers because I’m insecure about my weight” comes from the same pen and paper, giving us a taste of straightforwardness. Sometimes we are just in our heads, and brutal honesty is what we need.
Big Special are remarkable story tellers. Big Special do not play music, they use music to give us something - truth.
Such an album invites you into their world, their postindustrial hometown. Black Dog / White Horse, Trees, and DiG! - These songs are so singable they feel like classics from decades ago. But sometimes we don’t want to sing, we just need to talk. Like an unfiltered journal, this album leaves notes like My Shape (Blocking The Light) and For The Birds - A man speaking with soul out into the ether with a sense of hope and realisation. And after the buzzing loudness, realism, and grit - this is what we are left with...
Follow Big Special on socials @bigspecial_
Or through their website https://bigspecial.co.uk/
All photos by Isaac Watson AKA @Whammoth
Check him out here: http://whammoth.com/
Writer:
Sean Edwards
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