ALBUM REVIEW: BIG SPECIAL – ‘NATIONAL AVERAGE’

On the 4th of July, this most American of days, what better way to celebrate than a fresh helping of none-more-British snark and ennui from BIG SPECIAL?

Clearly they still have a lot to say and do, evidenced by how their recent release schedule has fallen out. Their debut, POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES, came out little more than a year ago; in February this year, it already more or less doubled in size with its deluxe reissue. Now comes NATIONAL AVERAGE, dropping out of nowhere in an age where ‘surprise albums’ amount to truncating the usual campaign a bit. With NATIONAL AVERAGE, there’s been genuinely no indication of its existence floating around. For a band as unique as BIG SPECIAL, that’s a really cool achievement to hit, and one that only serves to forward their uniqueness. A two-piece, predominantly spoken-word act influenced by blues, post-punk and the grime of a working-class English upbringing feels like it should be the exact patron for bending convention and striking when hot and necessary.

NATIONAL AVERAGE, then, is an extension of BIG SPECIAL that’s about as comprehensively done as you can get without outright repetition. A lot of the musical cues are the same, drawn simultaneously from the creak of urban dereliction and the warm, human component blazing at its heart. The root in poetry over standard lyricism is back, too, maybe under an even greater onus. And, once again, it’s Joe Hicklin’s delivery that makes this, where the heavied West Country brogue is immeasurably more effective at conveying gallows humour than if it had come from any of post-punk’s anonymous toffs.

The main difference (if you can actually call it that) is how NATIONAL AVERAGE, if anything, goes further than its predecessor. It’s definitely funnier, and in a way that a lesser band (read: an American band) would go too far with and wind up as a straight joke. BIG SPECIAL, however, play more to wit with great comedic timing and metre, buoyed by terrific, entertaining word choices. In literally any other combination of factors, you’d never get a line like “Be still, my bleeding arse” to work; something would go wrong. Here, though, it’s note-perfect, a grasp of the sardonicism and black comedy that makes regionalised poetry and literature so appealing. PROFESSIONALS does it best, where after the line “We use ‘fuck’s for commas, to make everything sad sound fucking funny”, there’s a pregnant pause, and Hicklin’s stone-faced, deadpan “lol” that’s timed and delivered to perfection.

Put any of this next to your usual ‘witty’, ‘everyman’ post-punk, and it’s not even a contest who comes out on top. BIG SPECIAL are in a different league altogether, all while built from largely the same post-punk apparatus. The rhythm section dominates, to where there may not even be a guitar present at all for the majority. It’s all drums and bass, configured as necessary and not feeling remotely constrained or limited. On one end of the spectrum, there’s still all the capability in the world for earworm melodies and hooks, in the twang of GOD SAVE THE PONY or how the chorus of SHOP MUSIC sounds like a muddied-up Talking Heads. Take a leap to the other extreme of BIG SPECIAL’s repertoire, and you’ll find GET BACK SAFE dragging its lead-heavy drums through the bleakness, and the apocalyptic slabs of bass and high-frequency synths that tear JUDAS SONG asunder.

Impressively, for as many potential dichotomies as BIG SPECIAL lay down for themselves (and all seemingly on purpose), not once do they appear to trip up. The reality is there really isn’t so much of a gulf between what BIG SPECIAL are doing; in the overall tapestry, it all comes together fairly neatly. Again, it’s along the same lines as POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES, now only with the moments of levity clung onto all the tighter, and the rot they’re pitted against being even more chronic and pervasive. You see that in NATIONAL AVERAGE’s final leg, where THE BEAST introduces a starkness previously unseen, to where there’s almost the buzz of negative space presented as a feature in its quietest moments. As for the closer THIN HORSES, it judders and quivers as Hicklin wears his most vulnerable persona, away from the quick wit or even the scuffed bellowing of a song like DOMESTIC BLISS. It’s the underlying theme of NATIONAL AVERAGE—and BIG SPECIAL in general—left to fend for itself: making do in a world that doesn’t want you to even go that far.

But for BIG SPECIAL at this point, they’re resilience and tenacity incarnate. The fact that NATIONAL AVERAGE has arrived in the way it has speaks to that—turned around remarkably quickly with no fanfare or promotion, and still manages a considerable step up in every regard. They’re quickly becoming one of the highlights among the UK’s rock profile, all through doing their own thing in a smart, insightful way with zero compromise. NATIONAL AVERAGE is emblematic of that, and of a band called ‘BIG SPECIAL’ deliberately stylised in all caps and bold type. Right now, they’re feeling very big, and very, very special.

For fans of: Benefits, The Murder Capital, Fontaines D.C.

‘NATIONAL AVERAGE’ by BIG SPECIAL is out now on SO Recordings.

Words by Luke Nuttall