The Big Pink ‘A Brief History Of Love’ // First Listen

FIRST LISTEN:
The Big Pink // First Listen
‘A Brief History Of Love’
(4AD)

The Big Pink were propelled into the spotlight with their curious blend of My Bloody Valentine inspired soundscapes and deafening drone sounds that have kept captivated fans returning to their live shows. The East London shoegazers have completed work on their debut  ‘A Brief History Of Love’ which was self-produced by the duo Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell in New York and was mixed by Muse and Interpol collaborator Rich Costey. Their debut is released on September 14th and we’ve given this intuitive and exciting LP a First Listen.

‘Crystal Visions’
The distant whine of a guitar echoes and a piano-like strum scatters across a sample of bustling thuds, before a My Bloody Valentine wall of sound explodes onto this bleak and sudden intro. Airy vocals haunt the bolshie drum beats and psychedelic verses held together by the simple clash of a tambourine. The guitars become the mainframe of this song, with Robbie’s lyrics being clouded by the ever more visceral and snarling distorted guitars until the song winds to a halt.

‘Too Young To Love’
A sonic collage of slamming Prodigy sized beats and swirling shoegaze guitars envelops your ears before Robbie’s vocals call out some incomprehensible, yearning lyrics. Crashing guitars build and build, making a huge body of gigantic layers, with snaps, thuds, haunting vocals and an optimistic, anthemic chorus that sews it all together to this perversely titled MBV homage.

‘Dominos’
A subtle intro begins ‘Dominos’ before the boisterous chorus introduces you to a stadium chanting sheen that’s sure to be ubiquitous in the forthcoming months. Unlike previous shoegazey drones, this pop structure and infectious chorus smacks of something almost Kasabian-like in its swaggering ambition, replacing swirling, haunting backing vocals with bombastic, obnoxious lyrics and crunching guitars over a techno beat and some hip hop scratching thrown in. There’s less mystery and depth to this but it’s an interesting insight into this band’s genre manipulating capabilities.

‘Love In Vain’
Starting with a 50s Motown spirit, a chinking tambourine and piercingly heartbreaking lyrics provide a deeply beautiful sentiment to the album. Vocally, there’s something almost akin to Richard Ashcroft on this shoegaze ballad, Robbie’s voice is morose and tender. Stripped of its gargantuan sound collages and throbbing beats, ‘Love In Vain’ is a totally surprising moment of light relief on this album that replaces big impact sounds for heart rendering pop sensibilities. 

‘At War With The Sun’
The vocals are pushed to the forefront of this song unlike the opening two songs, using a Horrors ‘Primary Colours’ spiraling dance sample that’s almost like a deranged circus soundtrack, swirling underneath thrusting guitars and Primal Scream sounding psychedelic moments. It’s a bold, stand-out song, offering another digestible slice of their eclectic blend of sounds.

‘Velvet’
Snapping and juddering, ‘Velvet’ seeps into a bleak and haunting murmur, before an ambient fusion of drum loops and skuzzy, thunderous guitars stamp a grand, anthemic feel to the album. Robbie Furze’s voice sounds numb but with a dark sentiment similar to The Jesus and Mary Chain, whilst the song grows and implodes into a Depeche Mode, trance-like somberness.

‘Golden Pendulum’
A stabbing smattering of keys pierce into thick drums slaps before the song’s elevated to a lighter, euphoric level, as Robbie repeats ‘instant love’. Dissolving the initial harshness of electronic beats into a miasma of shoegazey layers, the song stutters with drum samples until the remaining electronics sink away.

‘Frisk’
Taking on a poppier method to their grunge-dance, ‘Frisk’ kicks off with a Massive Attack trip hoppy beat. Robbie’s vocals saunter into the song with a sexy groove definitely inspired by Depeche Mode. Waves of KLF ‘Moo Moo Land’-like ‘aaaahs’ wash over distorted guitars and unrelenting drum beats – and whilst the song doesn’t really climax like the other songs, it incorporates a shadowy TV On The Radio-styled dankness throughout that leaves you feeling strangely affected.

‘A Brief History Of Love’
Starting off slow with nymph-like female vocals softly aiding Robbie’s dark and solemn murmur, the album’s title track is by far one of the most eerie moments of the LP.  In a kind of Spiritualized, subtly affecting way, ‘A Brief History Of Love’ is still and simple compared to past Big Pink drone songs. Leaving a lingering feeling of melancholy, the song leads out with electronic whirrs.

‘Tonight’
Spiralling back to the previous stadium swagger of ‘Dominos’ and ‘At War With The Sun’, ‘Tonight’ has that guitar driven anthemia about it, with bleeps raining throughout and the vivacious yet surrendering chorus of ‘Tonight you take a piece of my life’ giving it a real bolshie feel. This is an easily digestible album track with confident, fan grabbing appeal.

‘Count Backwards From Ten’
With a kind of classic rock Lou Reed or Bobby Gillespie-styled vocal drowsiness Robbie speaks until the chorus builds and grimly chants ‘Better off dead/Better off dead’. The song cascades into lingering whirlpool of female vocals mixed with a contestant building to the triumphant mantra of ‘I Rebel!’ and leaves the listener suspended on a keyed up buzz of lo-fi guitars and fuzz.