Format: Cassette
Something Big is a group which constantly strives for the grandiose. From their title to their ominous dubbing of sides one and two of their self-titled album as "Pop Side" and "Rock Side," Something Big has some big dreams.
Unfortunately, most of them are cut short for one reason or another. The pop side is not really pop and the rock side is not really rock; they're both painfully similar and both are filled with songs that show an obvious R. E. M. influence and little deviation from one another.
What's sad is that many of the tunes start out very promisingly, but wind up being very cliche'd. For example, the first song on the "Rock Side," "Try and Try," starts out with a simply incredible bass riff. Before too long, though, it winds up sounding like all the other songs on this album. That's not necessarily bad, mind you, but the whole thing ends up being an indistinguishable stream of Springsteen-style songwriting and chords-by-numbers.
The two most promising songs on the album are the last song on each side, "Some Kind of Lover" and "Out of Time." "Lover has a mellow, bluesy feel and can easily draw you in. "Out of Time" has a great melody, even though the chorus and the ending do tend to ramble on a bit.
All in all, it's not that this album is really bad, it's just not very pleasing to the ears. The songwriting and arranging is precise and honed. It's just a shame that some obviously talented musicians haven't yet found a voice of their own.
The album is available at Ear X-tacy Records.
(James Bickers is the guitarist with local band Full Armor. He is a songwriter and is currently working on material for his first studio album.)