Wednesday 19 August 2009

THE BIG PINK – VELVET (4AD)


THE BIG PINK – VELVET (4AD)

The Big Pink come on like a smoothed out, well ironed version of the Jesus & Mary Chain, in a way benefiting from such a glossy makeover while at the same time struggling to appear sincere and pure of origin.

As the drums open up the store a person would be forgiven for thinking they were about to be introduced to “Life’s What You Make It” by Talk Talk, the drum sound similarity is just uncanny. Soon however all gets revealed as being a dank, nonchalant sheet metal assault on the senses which does truly exhilarated in its execution. There is a fair bit of power attached to this record and its scorching guitar sound but not really quite enough to get overly excited about as the storm soon descend into nothing.

Unfortunately this is a band it feels almost impossible to fall in love with. In addition to the obvious comparisons made early they are also reminiscent of the Ravonettes, which while not necessarily being a bad thing, is not a great thing either. There is just not a band feel attached to the act, truly it feels more like an exploration in the studio and a solo effort that is perhaps a tad too clean without enough external influence.

In the process of this band going overground and reaching daytime it comes with a sense of keenness to pander and impress, one that you feel will eventually dilute the sound pushing the glorious guitar sound into the background while the cringeworthy vocals and lyrical content step out more into the forefront. Eventually I can’t help but feel this band will sound like Mansun.

Get it while you can.

Thesaurus moment: fleet.

The Big Pink
4AD

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