New Music Review: The Big Pink-Future This

The Big Pink-"Future This"

4AD

Grade: 7.05 (C-)

Available At: Amazon MP3 & CD, SPIN

Official site: musicfromthebigpink.com

Big Choruses. Who loves to get wrapped around a big chorus? I don't mind it. Well, the sophomore album from London outfit The Big Pink has ten songs full of big bombastic choruses. For starters we have the opener "Stay Gold". It wraps itself around a repetitive keyboard line through the verses until it erupts in a fist pumping chorus of "Stay Gold! Shine the light for us to follow". It's big time anthem worthy and gets your blood pumping even if you're not sure why. It's a very close cousin to the their sort of breakthrough hit "Dominoes" released a couple years ago. So a good start, right?

Unfortunately the ONLY thing going for "Future This" is those big choruses. They practically creep up like someone preparing to pull an unknowing prank on you (BOO! Gotcha! Here's a chorus!) and are the only things you take away from the ten tracks on the affair. "I Don't Want To Hit The Ground", "Move In Slow Motion", "I Was Busy Rubbernecking", "Lose Your Mind, Doing It On My Own"...yeah, these are the lines that are going to sit in your brain like capsules labeled "Empty Lines from Big Choruses". The songs just don't formulate at all with any sort of fluency. The Big Pink have decided to put all their money on one number of the roulette wheel: Red 18 (or choruses without songs). Take for instance the biggest offender "Give It Up" a song that relies on hollow sound effects in the verses until crashing into a chorus that doesn't even match the rest of the song "Give it up, give it up for me". There is a positive vibe flowing through "Future This" but I'm having trouble where to find it on an album that wants to have a big heart but fails on how to convey it. The only time that heart shows through is on the closer "77" which, ironically, is a song about depression and death and the 77 ways to say goodbye. It's reminiscent of good Violator era Depeche Mode and has a big chorus that works with the song as well. If The Big Pink could've executed this side throughout the album, then "Future This" wouldn't have the after effect of forgettable songs.

I was on the fence after a few listens but just can't get myself to enjoy this entirely. It's not a terrible affair, just disappointing after the rush of the opener "Stay Gold". But it's tough to rile on an album that obviously wants to have a big, positive feel. It wants to be human, but doesn't know how to show itself . No one will probably be talking about "Future This" in the near future. So in the meantime, just Stay Gold.

JHO Picks: Stay Gold, 77, Hit The Ground (Superman)

Uncle Salty's Take:

Grade: 8.6

Picks: Stay Gold, Hit The Ground (Superman), Rubbernecking, 77

Source: http://www.jhostation.com/2012/01/new-music-review-big-pink-future-this.html

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