The Big I Am - Collecting Skies

Music review by Sebastian Gahan 20/10/2011

Mellow is a term often tagged to slow music, or sounds that don’t match the common conception of rock. This album from the brilliantly named Liverpool band The Big I Am is one of those releases to which you could initially apply that tag. But despite the song titles that suggest semi-humorous observations of life that are easily forgotten once the disc is back in its case on the shelf, (That is, if you still listen to music on CD’s…) there is more meets the eye and ear to this release.

Indeed, the strange sounding A Hedge and Heaven and Hell is not a paean to an incident on the way home from the pub involving a hedge but an atmospheric composition, imbued with emotive ukulele and piano that evokes the spirit of enjoying life, despite someone having dragged the subject of the song ‘through a hedge and heaven and hell’ and when the orchestrated backing kicks in it becomes an absolute highlight of the album. The synth-flavoured Better Days is also a melancholy sounding yet positive song with a chorus of ‘There’s better times to come’ and I must admit that on first listening this whole album somewhat threw me, especially this song, but on later listens I grew to enjoy it.

Perhaps then this is the ubiquitous slow burning record that slowly worms its way into the subconscious and then makes you really sit back and enjoy it. As mentioned previously, this is very mellow on most tracks and perhaps it’s this that throws the listener at first. So much music on the Liverpool scene is boisterous in its sound and tends to over shadow the songs that don’t grab the casual listener by the collar and into their respective groove. Collecting Skies then is a slow burning experience of a record, reminiscent of many folk releases in that you have to invest time into the listening to truly enjoy it. And now that I’ve listened and appreciated the mellow, reflective vibe of The Big I Am I can say that you should give this a listen.

Draw the curtains, dim the lights, sip a cup of your favourite beverage and you will enjoy this album at its best.

The Big I Am can be found here: http://bigiam.com/

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Comment left by pete on 1st November, 2011 at 23:53
thanks Sabastian that is much appreciated:-)