by Rockford Rowley (@Rockford_Rowley)
Some albums reveal their brilliance gradually, allowing the listener to absorb their unobtrusive elements at whatever pace they choose to acknowledge them. They can serve as sonic placeholders to be picked up and examined every now and again, until one day it unravels itself and what you’ve always suspected you loved about it is in plain view. However, this is not the case with Big Blood’s 2020 LP Do You Wanna Have A Skeleton Dream?
This record does not waste any time placing you firmly in its grips, immediately locking into the guiding bass and reverb-drenched vocals of “Sweet Talker”. When an album makes you feel like you’re hearing Rotary Connection’s attempt at contemporary garage rock, you know things are off to a good start. As the band effortlessly transitions to the album’s third track “Sugar,” the guiding bass of the previous track assumes a warbling role to accompany the song’s melancholic vocals - all the while a biting, understated electric guitar twinkles in the horizon. As the album progresses, Big Blood manages to cohesively touch on a far-flung array of styles and influences, and in doing so doesn’t fail to grapple with some heavy matters.
“Real World” offers up a poignant criticism of unearned privilege and the cruelty of inequality with the grace of soaring vocals and a heavy foot on the theatrical (but tasteful) production pedal. Next, enter full-blown fuzz bass on “Providence” as underlying effects glitch in and out of the auditory landscape. Topics of grave seriousness drift back under the microscope on the track “Insecure Kids”. The lyrics of this song wrestle with the pitfalls of proliferating and consumptive internet use with lines like “Who needs real friends we’ve got internet creeps on the other end,” later continuing with “I was sitting by my door when I heard a knock I’d never heard before / I looked through the peephole to see, oh no, it was reality staring back at me”. The album finishes out with a pair of billowing tracks that gently ease the listener out of the delightful denseness of the former songs.
Do You Wanna Have A Skeleton Dream is a fantastic presentation of earnest songs featuring top-notch performances, tidy production and a smattering of styles served up with refreshing urgency - a must listen.