Album Reviews
- by Tom Dumarey
When I heard Big Nothing’s self-titled 7-inch back in 2017, I was instantly smitten. The Philadelphia-based band consisting of Spraynard’s Pat Graham, Crybaby’s Matt Quinn, Casual’s Liz Parsons and Young Livers’ Chris Jordan, played this completely kickass mix of Superchunk meets The Get Up kids goodness that completely belied their band name. These songs were big on everything. Melodies, hooks, loud guitars, shared vocals... Big Nothing had it all covered in just four songs.
No way they could keep up this kind of badassery for an entire album, right?
Well, it took them two long friggin’ years but ‘Chris’ is everything I have been waiting and hoping for. They kept the ’90s punk/emo vibes of the EP and have further spruced things up by letting their inner Replacements shine. The end result are 11 absolutely amazing songs that range from the energetic one-two opening punch that is ‘Waste My Time’ and ‘Calm Me Down’, the gentler ‘Carried Away’and the Martha-like ‘Honey’ to all-out belters such as ‘Always Prepared’ and ‘Autopilot’ as well as the über-catchy ‘Real Name’.
Regardless of whether you are into power-pop, punk, indie or 90ies emo, do yourself a favor and check out Big Nothing. I guarantee you won’t regret it.
Track listing:
- Waste My Time
- Calm Me Down
- Always Prepared
- Carried Away
- Quiet One
- Honey
- Real Name
- Untitled
- Autopilot
- Sister
- Can't Stop
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
