by Big Deal
‘June Gloom’ is quite aptly titled for this wintery Melbourne morning. Funnily enough, the duo - Big Deal are actually from London, so apparently they are having a gloomy summer.
This album is the beautiful follow-up to 2011’s debut LP ‘Lights out’. While their previous record was recorded as a duo, this album is fleshed out and very rockin’ in parts - with drums, bass and some pretty awesome 90’s guitar fuzz/crunch. It’s a great collection of songs too, using largely male/female combined vocal lead, lovely sentimental lyrics and some very clever arrangements to take the listener on a sonic journey through their shoegaze/pop/rock world.
Standout tracks for me are: Swapping Spit (gross title!) which would be an ideal Sunday morning cleaning track (an important time for music!). In your car, with the lyrics - “Driving in your car/I wanna be wherever you are… Asleep in your back seat/there’s nothing more that I’ll ever need” they create a very cozy picture, and the soaring repeated guitar riffs (My Bloody Valentine-esque) pull it all together. The closing track, Close your eyes, is (for the first 3 minutes) a return to the stripped back Big Deal, a lovely melancholic ending to what is a very well crafted album.
‘June Gloom’ reminds me of a lot of the melancholic guitar rock that I was listening to in the late 90’s. Far from being a pastiche, it combines great elements of what has come before with something very new.
by Sam Johnstone - PBS Music Department
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