Album candidate: Big Troubles, Romantic Comedy

Where to begin with this one? This album came out in September and I have been almost unable to get this out of my CD player since. I listen to the concordant phrases of the opening track “She Smiles for Pictures” and I’m unable to tear away until the guys take a step back for “Sad Girls,” which ends up keeping me glued with its meandering “I’m over love” chorus. This music is Power Pop, but there is so much more here. All the instrumentation is complimentary to each other and the dreamy vocals that tie it all together. It’s jangly enough, rockin’ enough, contemplative enough to put it on a top shelf, but not among any of the bands’ sounds it calls on. Big Troubles stands on their own here, and that is quite a feat. The emotionally drained (yet ever ready) lyrics provide a great stub of constant contradiction to the lackadaisical waves and cosy motions of the remainder of their sound. With later tracks like “Softer than Science” and “Engine” gazing their way to an almost Ocean Blue or Teenage Fanclub level, the album leaves an untied knot after the last track “Never Mine” - What comes next? This is the band’s second album, so hopefully their first will satiate me until the third comes around.

Click through for the video for “She Smiles for Pictures.”