The Very Pink of the Mode
In 2009, the emperor’s new clothes come in a hot new shade of Big Pink. Though ‘new’ might be overselling the mark, as the so-named combo —a way-hyped duo from London— parade a distortion-soaked, shoegaze/industrial sound that happily harkens back to the early ’90s.
The Big Pink's ambitions can be condensed to the résumé of producer Alan Moulder, who worked on their first single, "Velvet," and was initially earmarked to produce the album before scheduling troubles submarined the idea.
This choice of producer was a telling one, as The Big Pink draw heavily from the bands Moulder worked with; he having made his name working with the Jesus and Mary Chain, found fame as shoegaze's go-to guy via work with My Bloody Valentine, Curve, Ride, and Swervedriver, and, finally, striking up ongoing creative partnerships with the Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails.
This puts The Big Pink in an amusing position: If they’d arrived in 1995, they’d have been mocked as mercilessly as, say, Filter. But everything old is new again in pop-culture's self-consuming cycle of nostalgia; a capitalist ouroboros that leaves no sub-genre unrevived. Over a decade-and-a-half on from their era-of-inspiration, and The Big Pink are timing their revival right: the kids these days apparently crazy again for dense layers of white-noise guitar, synth squeals, and pounding drum-programming.
What's it All About, Furzie?
If only this was a matter of style, you could forgive A Brief History of Love as some throwaway exercise in sound-nostalgia. But, unfortunately, there's the small matter of substance; which, in this case, comes in the form of some particularly unfortunate lyrics that just can't be swept under the sonic tapestry.
As producer-type Milo Cordell builds these walls-of-sound, frontman-type Robbie Furze sings, in a lazy Ian Brown croon, unflattering tunes about bedding girls then ditching them. “You call out my name, for the love you need/which you won’t find in me,” Furze blurts, somewhat mockingly, in "Velvet." In "Frisk," he's a little less of a jerk, offering "if this is love, then I might just leave it.” And, then, with the disturbing, dreadful "Dominos," he's actually just a jerk: "I really love breaking your heart.”
Said song is the nadir of this already-questionable record; Furze boasting about the glories of dumping the dames right when they start to getting a bit too permanent. “Talk of a future with you makes me ill” he moans, “stuck with forever/to the point of tears.” What better than to cut that loose? “As soon as I love her, it’s been too long,” Furze sings, somehow, perhaps, managing to see himself as a romantic.
Blessed with the tawdry chorus "These girls fall like dominos! Dominos! Dominos!" and released as a single whose artwork features a faceless woman's breasts, "Dominos" is to date rapists what Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" was to binge drinkers. Confronted with its idiocy, I'm too frightened to find out why Furze called his band The Big Pink.
Record Label: 4AD
Release Date: September 22, 2009
