The Big Pink – Future This
[rating:2/5]
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Production duo Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell are back with their second album as The Big Pink and, after their talk of taking a different approach this time and even ‘going hip hop’, Future This picks up almost exactly where first album A Brief History Of Love left off – although it lacks the soul and spark of inspiration that made their debut so memorable.
‘Stay Gold’ and new single ‘Hit The Ground (Superman)’ make for an entertaining opening, with the former wasting no time in establishing its killer hook and the latter showing the duo can manage delicate melodies and huge choruses with ease.
After a solid opening Future This becomes lost in an unforgiving tide of electro-pop cliches, with Furze and Cordell finding themselves in a state of limbo in trying to establish a new direction without fully letting go of A Brief History Of Love.
‘Give It Up’ toys with a hip hop beat but eventually gives up and becomes a boring soul number that tries and fails to match the likes of Massive Attack and UNKLE. ‘1313’ is a slow-witted and uninspired electro-rock affair and ‘Jump Music’ is an instantly forgettable piece of throwaway ‘pop’. The Big Pink have obviously decided to abandon the dark and interesting tones of their first album in favour of expansive and more radio-friendly fare a la ‘Dominos’, but the result is a limp and boring album that is overly reliant on synth hooks and euphoric vocals.
Amongst the misses though there are a few hits. ‘Rubbernecking‘ is everything a chart bothering Big Pink song should be, it’s just a shame it gets dragged down by all the other songs trying to be ‘big’ to really stand out. Elsewhere the title track and ’77’ offer a glimpse at what a more restrained and thoughtful album could have sounded like.
