BIG SPECIAL’s POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES is an album about dogs. It might as well be; there’s a dog on the cover for one, and half a dozen songs make reference to dogs in some capacity. This doesn’t feel coincidental either, not for a band as poetically minded as this. Perhaps it could be the more literary interpretation of the dog imagery, to represent loyalty and protection. After all, BIG SPECIAL are rather driven politically on their debut, and such a prevalent repeated image could stand for solidarity against the corrupt powers that be. Or maybe it’s there to signify normality, of the average people in average communities for whom simply living has become too much of a struggle under the boot heel. Either way, when it’s knotted and wrapped in the thorny, hard-shelled presence of BIG SPECIAL, it’s superbly effective.
It isn’t be chance, either. You can chalk up pretty much every facet of BIG SPECIAL’s existence put into their art as a factor that improves it. For one, they’re quick to ditch staid preconceptions of a conventionally minimalist duo making angry music. To proclaim them as such wouldn’t be incorrect, but it also doesn’t give credit to how proudly this album stands alone. The primary instrumental palette consists of drums, bass and warping strings of synth, often kept deliberately simple without being limited. It’s almost like a concerted effort to avoid post-punk fatigue, which even the tracks closer to that benchmark like BLACK COUNTRY GOTHIC and TREES wind up accomplishing.
Across the board, there’s this monochrome weight dousing BIG SPECIAL’s efforts, as if the grimdark nightmarescape that literature has depicted their Black Country home as is imbued in the backdrop. It’s rarely sinister, though; more oppressed and unquantifiably dour. The smog and pollution of the area’s Industrial Revolution history continues to loom, and coats the low thrums and opaque tones of DESPERATE BREAKFAST and iLL.. It’s honestly quite a unique mood that’s set, certainly next to a semantically likewise crop of urban post-punk. BIG SPECIAL almost come across as brutalist in their construction, on the clattering, industrial grind of I MOCK JOGGERS embossed with its bluesy bass rip, or in how lousy with malaise the crushing THIS HERE AIN’T WATER is.
At the same time, POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES isn’t a depressed album, not like it very well could be. BROADCAST: TIME AWAY and DiG! seem to be openly aspirational, looking to unhook predetermined cycles of austerity and find something more, no matter how small that might be. Especially on the latter—with the album’s only instances of horns and strings to properly illustrate a climax—it’s the big, incandescent wall of brightness that, should it be seen as BIG SPECIAL making concessions to round their album off, are definitely earned. There’s also the fact that poetry and spoken-word deliveries open things up for some great lines, regardless of how bleak the environment is. They’re all over the place, too, from the excellent line readings of “It’s character-building!” on DESPERATE BREAKFAST, to the gnashing of the title line on SHITHOUSE, to how matter-of-factly DUST OFF / STARTS AGAIN lashes out with “This thing eats Tories”.
Joe Hicklin is the one at the centre of all that, and the keystone with which BIG SPECIAL would be far poorer without. Obviously there are no notes for him as a lyricist, but that extends to pretty much everything about him on the album, as he takes the guise of a sermonic leader howling and convulsing through his own intensity. When he chooses to sing, he does so with a holler that rends the soulfulness in his voice apart on THIS HERE AIN’T WATER, or conversely projects the balefulness of England’s imagery on BLACK DOG / WHITE HORSE. Meanwhile, spoken verses bear a stark contrast, as Hicklin returns to his Midlands accent emblematic as a vehicle for the cynicism and black comedy of suitably regionalised poetry. There’s still pure intensity to be found—see MONGREL for an excellent example—but the best results come when it’s paired with more biting, incisive cuts. Bonus credit for just how different this all sounds, too; the regionalised voice rings as so much more effective for specific takedowns than another series of London-centric barks.
You could easily go on and try to untangle the myriad of sonic ideas and how metre and flow and lyricism are used, but there’s just no need when BIG SPECIAL’s intent still resonates on the very surface. POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES is self-evidently great on breadth alone. There are ideas and notions towards creating rock music that so few even feel capable to try, and here’s BIG SPECIAL getting it this right, this early. The amount to appreciate about this album really can’t be overstated, nor can the ingenuity that’s gone towards its craft. It’s an absolute standout of the year so far, in every conceivable way.
For fans of: Fontaines D.C., Benefits, Sleaford Mods
‘POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES’ by BIG SPECIAL is released on 10th May on SO Recordings.
Words by Luke Nuttall
Great review Luke!