Personnel: Joanne Robertson (vocals); William Rees (guitar); Dickie Landry (saxophone); Jamie Reynolds (vibraphone); Alice O'Connell (bass guitar).
Audio Mixers: Alan Moulder; Rich Costey.
Recording information: Electric Lady Studio, New York, NY; The Big Pink Studio, New York, NY.
Photographers: Mark Atkins; Chris Bigg.
On their debut album, A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOVE, the Big Pink immerse themselves in all aspects of the first wave of shoegaze. The duo of Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell have doubtlessly made a complete study of the guitar music coming out of their native U.K. in the late '80s and early '90s and worked to build their sound into an impressive conglomeration of influences that's made up of components like the proggy excess of the Catherine Wheel, the guitar overload of My Bloody Valentine, the drum loops and dance elements of Chapterhouse, the dark, industrial sheen of Curve, and the epic sweep of the Verve but with plenty of modern production tricks. The influence extends to the vocals, which recall the expansiveness of the Verve's Richard Ashcroft rather than the dreaminess of the Thames Valley shoegaze contingent. A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOVE is a strong, sometimes really, really good debut, and a nice addition to the shoegaze canon.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.78) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Big Pink -- multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell -- nail the balance between gloomy, monolithic drone and songcraft."
Spin (p.30) - Ranked #25 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2009" -- "[W]ith fuzzy wall-of-sound guitars, half-speed electronic dance beats, and darkly romantic pleas."
CMJ - "Part psychedelic, part edgy and part soft, gleaming vocals with harmonies as smooth as a low tide, the Big Pink's A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOVE feels anything but brief."
Q (Magazine) (p.107) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Pitching the standard-issue walls of guitar noise onto digital beats and swooning melodies, tracks such as 'Velvet' evoke LOVELESS-era My Bloody Valentine..."
Uncut (magazine) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] dystopian beats, dark electronics and distorted guitars..."
