Listen here as you read…..
5 song 7.2 playlist
This is my PURELY UNBIASED review of Big Wreck’s second of three 5 song EP’s entitled 7.2. It’s a banger.
So as most of you know, I have been listening to this whole collection for quite some time. I even shared some unsolicited opinions with Ian (I can’t help myself) on track selection and concepts for how the three EP’s should be grouped by category. I am known to overshare.... Thankfully there are peeps in the BW camp that know MUCH better than I what they are doing in this crazy new music biz free for all.
I originally broke each song down into categories like this.... Rocker, Epic, Pop
That said, I do think that, as configured, 7.2 is the meat of the three sevens. While the roots are evident on some tracks, there is a supreme confidence in craft that captures the essence of their predecessors and moves it forward at the same time. This one just nails it for BW on all points.
So a more granular look at 7.2 is:
Better Off - Rocker
Rye Bread - Roots Rocker
Spit it Out - Roots Rocker
Fear & Cowardice - Epic
The House - MusoPop
Better Off
Better Off kicks it right out of the gate with that staccato, tight hard funk riff that recalls the tone of Come Again era Thornley. It’s a call back to Come Again, but instead of stomping it has a pinchier, funkier rhythm. I immediately thought of Nuno Bettencourt and Extreme, but pre-Extreme was Steve Morse and the Dixie Dreggs. It is evident Ian has been a Morse fan forever.
PERFECT hot licks, compressed, limited, pinchy, however you want to describe it, that teases in the left channel. That zippery middle flourish and bounce to the right channel which then explodes echoey wide, full force as the drums drop. That’s detail that probably gets lost on a single bluetooth speaker in the yard, but on headphones or a quality audio setup grabs your head and turns it. That world class production is just ANOTHER layer of hooks.
The stammering funk rhythm of course reminds me of passages of Kings X, drops it hard. The way Dave, Ian and Sekou lock in brings to mind the three X’rs explicitly and Zeps proto funk breakdowns historically.
How that hard, chunky movement turns so buttery smooth into the chorus is a wonder! In an instant we’re dipped into the sweet chorus river of vocal melody, listening to syrupy “oooooo words” and “ding dongs” that draw deep from U2! The transition from hard to soft, pointed to soothing and the way the bass line and drumming shifts to a near shuffle is GREAT!
And that chorus ending line “Better off with than without” FINALLY just hit me! I am pretty dense so I guess until I could actually READ it I didn’t get it. The way Ian thinks rhythmically and sound shape first on the lyrics and how he sings it masked the meaning for me. We are better of WITH the thing, than WITHOUT the thing.... whatever that thing is!
So it repeats with more layers adding Tyler and Dave and more lush ding dongs.... and then the breakdown funk bounce. They go full Morse-meets-Ty-Dug interspersed with the chimey Edge rhythm foolery. Those deep drop D? bends add that wooziness that loosens the funk. I swear Ian writes like a dancer.
Then comes the full U2 treatment that builds and builds around that echoed delay pattern.... like a frilly towering confectionery creation rising to an Ian scream only to be chopped down with that buzzing sharp staccato riff.
After that head-turning-neck-breaking funk and syrup sandwich we get Sekou’s Easter egg . Like he just looked up from that furious exercise and saw the audience in full jaw-on-the-floor mode.... and casually drops his “Oh, hi there!”.
Spit it Out
Well, we’ve been hearing parts of it for 19 months on instagram!!! It looks like it is FINALLY here, heralding the forthcoming 7.2!!!!! It’s a GRABBER! One of the harder straight rock sections Ian has ever recorded! But of course there is always a dark and light play for BW.
Let’s talk about the lineage of that intro first. It creeps up like Aerosmith’s Hangman Jury. Nice little acoustic front porch ditty on the order of Ease My Mind. Little guitar in the left, some tasty pickin’ in the right. It all joins up to a fat bass drum beat and a walking bass that dances it out. This is the country swing that was promised on This is Where My Heart Is. THIS has got the SWING that was missing on TIWMHI!
AND just as we settle into that back country groove, Ian drops the BOMB riff! It has that Montrose Rock Candy head crushing tone... but it’s just a taste. Actually, the riff itself has it’s roots in a nearly unknown rocker from the mid-70’s. Evie by Stevie Wright the original singer for the Easybeats. He was touted to be the original singer for AC/DC! That and that scrapey chuggachugga that Joe Walsh did in Funk 49 really puts this in a sweet spot for me. I have a LOT of history burned in my brain so..... everyone will experience it their own way.
Before you know it, it’s over and the back porch jam goes to tasty level two. Ian sings and slippey-slides all over. The bass and slide just percolate! I could listen to this section for hours!
HARD left turn and we are madly scraping and chugging! Am I in the late 70’s? This is just KILLIN’! Now we’re at the bridge.... oh wait, is that Alice in Chains? Did someone hit the changer? I LOVE THESE SHIFTS!!!
Full shred coming! Firing all influences! 2 BLISTERING solos!!! OMG what a ride!!!!
Rye Bread
Such a departure from the other tracks. Starts with slide picking as if they just turned on the mics in the lull of a jam. I love how that fat, roomy, lush shuffle and bass groove seems to grow right out of the guitar figure like it’s an improv. And that shaker is the glue!
In my mind, this track bears some lineage to Off and Running in it’s approach. It coalesces the same way. It has sweet layered, lush production. Off and Running has a Petty meets Floyd feel, while Rye Bread has a Little Feat meets Big Wreck feel. Shuffling, muscular, bubbling funk.
“My whole life I had a better one in mind” is one of the best lines on 7.2, and there are a LOT of them! The verses build to the pre-chorus section when those heavenly slide harmonic atmospherics wash over, “Who got the ladder? Who got the slide?” I love the lyrics and I am still deciphering the meaning, It keeps revealing more each time.
That wavy slide “ding dong” that beds the chorus I could listen to isolated for hours! The background layers of wet slide washes are so enveloping and like Ian loves to do, they get more and more layers and complexity as the song progresses.
Sekou and Dave REALLY lock in and yet stay loose. Sekou’s fills reflect the same. Tight but loose.
Around two and a half minutes in, they come out of that chorus and Ian unfurls a tasty southern slide clinic. It has a little of that Dereck Trucks lack of edge wiggle in the transitions. Kinda round in the attack but it still has enough complexity to be signature Ian.
That last chorus section, “It’s on the wind like a dear departed friend” is a glorious wash of slide layers careening ever upward! Of course it has to be a reference to Brians continuing influence on Ian.
The minute and a half of tasty outro is so good! Sekou and Dave get to jam a bit. But that counterpoint discordant/minor synth line in the back adds a deep, dark unexpected southern swamp mystery/danger/menace to this track. Rye Bread is simultaneously thick, humid, funky AND delicate, pointed. This is as big a departure as almost anything they have done. GREAT track!
Fear and Cowardice
Anyone who has followed my drooling over this track since Ian posted the “Riff Challenge” vid on Instagram knows what I think of this track. THIS is Big Wreck at it’s epic finest! F&C is inarguably the BIG DOG in this collection.
The opening tone of the Mississippi Fred Suhr vid is the genesis for me. So powerful and menacing. Chills from the baddassery of that tone alone! It sets up that performance that only hints at what swamp metal might one day be.
F&C is that track. Fade up on that slide, and let your spine shift to that woozy groove. It has a blooze swagger in a grunge tone. Darkest tonnage Ian has ever played. And I do mean tonnage, as in weight. When I heard the Instagram clip, I could not believe that sound came from an unproduced cell phone snippet. THAT riff touched something deep in my DNA. The final recording captures it magnificently!
The vocals flow in that gritty trench dug by that groove. The lyrics, written during pandemic lock-down reflect some deep emotions about compromise and consequences. Dark and menacing.
Then the skies open up! The clouds part and rays of sunshine light the day! That unmistakable Hammond organ peaks in first and the triumphant slide pulls along this FreeBird/Stairway/Layla level chorus. I cannot put my finger on where it’s roots are from but this chorus is just goosebump-making tear-inducing bliss! I have LITERALLY heard this track a thousand times and as I write this I am crying and bumping. Ha!
The menace and glory of the verse chorus pairing is just fantastic song-craft! The darkness of life in the music business and the pursuit of success vs the glory of the creation process of making music, following your muse and listening to that voice in your head that spurs you on. The mystery of that pull and tear, that confidence and panic in the birth pains of delivery of the musical child. GOD this hits on so many deep themes. Again written in the throes of a deadly pandemic. Life, death, manipulation, coercion, comfort..... fear and cowardice. At least that’s my take. Plus any song that has the words “Mighty Buk” in it gets kudos from me. Hahaha!
Something else about this track that stands out to me. Have you ever noticea that Ian creates these highpoint chorus that grabs you to the core and then drops it only once, and then never again in the song. Such a tease! Alibi is the perfect example of this. That “Well I said I was Gonna... Too loud for silence” super chorus section PLEADS to be repeated. Nope.
Well in this chorus in F&C FINALLY showcases a MEGA hook to satisfaction. Again and again!
Then comes the breakdown. That punch you in the chest bass and drum combo lays a bed for a tight rizzy solo. It feels all Alice in Chains with a jazzy loose to ripping solo. Tight, quick, in and out and then....
A stripped down chorus with an almost bell toned organ bed and slide swells. Couple that with some high floating careening Ian’s echoing the lyrics and it’s a heavenly cleanse that Sekou CRASHES out of and that avalanche fill tumbles out into the warm sun of the full chorus. “So what do you tell yourself”... OMG!
There is something about that line. Those words. The way Ian’s tone and inflection squeezes some deep emotion in me. In Might be the End, from demo to the final on Tiny Pictures, the way he pinched some of the lines made a DRASTIC difference to me. The demo had an emotion that was lost moving to the final. It’s REALLY subtle, but it makes ALL the difference in my hearing. Well, “So what do you tell yourself” NAILS it PERFECTLY!
Ian must have thought so too because this shows NO cowardice in repeating this absolute nuclear gem of a refrain. The spiraling layers of Ian that I am hearing on the preview of the final that’s been posted has me looking forward to the Hi Def digital/CD in the coming days. There are vocal runs after vocal runs the likes of which haven’t been explored since Breakthrough with Myles Kennedy.
Like Sekou described it to Ian. This track is the one that when the chorus hits makes you lay back in your seat, head back, arms limp, splayed to the sides, leaving you just stunned with a single tear sliding down your cheek.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. THIS is a GREAT ONE! Maybe the best one. Just may be.
The House
Ever since I first heard this track, I had an inkling it had some 80’s roots that I could not put my finger on. I thought it was something by Crowded House. I don’t even know much of their material and rather than do a deep dive, I thought to ask Ian directly. No connection. But it still bugged me. In prepping to write this, I finally found the anchor in my own mind for this song.
It was Porl Thompson of the Cure. He was an accompanying guitarist on the Plant and Page tour in 1995. He had the chance to do a Cure song, Lullaby with P&P on that tour. In my mind there is a connection.... can you hear it? I’m sure it has NO relation to the actual genesis of the song but that is the root it tugs in my memory.
That personal mystery solved, one of my absolute favorite things that drives Ian’s creativity is his search for the odd thing that can work it’s way into a composition. That wammy bar wiggle and how it echoes out into the sky is so wonderfully expansive! From an instagram exploration of technique to fully fleshed out studio atmospheric hook is a marvel to hear!
The drums roll up and it’s on! What a groove! Languid, loping with skipped beats gives it a real life. The verses clip along and Ian’s vocal delivery is beat-centric. It has a cool swing to it, adding slight twist here and there. But then the chorus. Good GOD! That bed of mando that builds a sonic lattice across the ceiling lets Ian just sky up and paint it raw! It shows why Ian belongs in the convo with the best! Singing along is GREAT in the car when I’m ALONE! Ha!
The verses have that cool feel that Control delivered on, but like on a lot of the new compositions there is a bubbling groove and pulse in the production. It really makes these tracks pop.
Then it’s back to wallowing and wading! I think that’s Ian’s creative life. He so blessed with these tracks that keep coming to him; keep him knee deep in options to wade through to bring us all this superlative musical magic!
Ian once said,
“So what if I float
So what if I drift
Refuse to believe
That this is all a gift”
Now he’s ok with the “so what”. Now he is resolved to wallow in overflow. He now knows that ultimately it’s a gift and he’s determined to wade through it to get somewhere valuable. SomeTHING valuable. But experience mitigates. Been there before, he knows the score....
Of course it’s a mixed metaphor. At one point it’s about music and his relation to it and at another, it’s an emotional flood of a personal relationship. Either way, it’s PACKED with impassioned emotion! I think that is why this track resonates with so many of the fans already!
With Ian wailing while wallowing and wading Sekou and Dave keep that loping bounce alive. Sekou’s fills are bombastic and gigantic! So much power!
Then onto the bubbling bed, steps the solo! Loose and jangly, this is the second best extended solo of this collection to me. There is one better that is coming. This one weaves in and out of the rhythm swinging from the posts, making dotted arcs, bordering on dissolving into metallic harmonic at parts, with that rizzy distortion.... MY GOD that is TASTY! And the song is only 3:30 in!
The final chorus is thick and towering! Just as we have come to know.
Then we float. The outro is pure goosebump float. Such a danceable groove!
“Float
Float
Float
Floatin’ away”
Well that’s it! 7.2 is quite possibly the most Big-Wreck-in-a-nutshell (That can’t even be a thing! IMPOSSIBLE!) 5 songs they’ve ever done. This one’s got it all.
Hey Buk,
I thought you'd really enjoy these videos if you want to hear all the layers that were mixed into the songs. If you haven't seen these then you've been missing out and must see them ASAP!!!
Here's a link to Part 1
https://youtu.be/4MHdMIQB0fE
I must say the House is the song that I almost recommended but didn't due to no video other than the drummer's own live video. However, the solo in that song is the Diamond of guitar work on this album...inwas conflicted because I knew if Michael heard that song he'd be all over the guitar work on it but F&C won out due the video and the fact it just hits you like a million volts of electricity.