The Loungs – Big Wow

Label:Fresh Hair Records Release date: 08/03/10 Link: Myspace There seems to have a bit of Woody Allen love (for both his oeuvre and his humour) running through Big Wow, it seems, as there’s the random, subtle reference in the lyrics and if that doesn’t sell the idea, there’s even a track called ‘Annie Hall’, which owes pays some lip service to the quintessential Allen film while sharing its soul with another film mammoth, The Blues Brothers. It’s hard to categorise (and even they acknowledge this, as the songs appear as 'unclassifiable' on the media players – cheeky!) the sound of Loungs. For most of the time they sound like some sunny pop band that drank too much, other times it’s just a party band having fun while making some upbeat music. In fact, this is probably the strongest point going for The Loungs (pronounced lungs, for anyone keeping score at home). They are a fun sounding band, but the sheer spectrum of emotions going at the rhyme department is as imaginative (depressed robots) as slice of life (sharing ciggies) gives them a few extra points. There are moments when the humour falls a bit flat or simply doesn’t work. There should be something good buried beneath the vocoded voices in ‘Yer blooze’ (the song about a depressed robot) but it sadly doesn’t deliver. The song sadly never really goes anywhere but it’s pretty short and it’s a small speck of dust in the bigger picture. Big Wow recovers, again and with a lot of style, sounding like a bag of different genres mixed together. The peppiness of ‘The sophomore jinx’ (a bit of twotone), the quirky twee of ‘Good morning’ and the surf-lite of ‘Jack Sarfatti’. Hey, if Calvin managed to get a cartoon deal for Spaceman Spiff, ‘Jack Sarfatti’ would’ve been the perfect theme song. The last two songs (‘Jupiter and Mars’, ‘Gretil’) again go for greatness. The approach is more calm, the sounds are soothing (specially on ‘Gretil’). Between the different changes of pace and genrehopping, this ending pair are a reward for a rather excellent sophomore album. Deeply buried in the deceptively folk mix lies a bunch of interesting musical ideas. A strange mix but it adds to the layering going around in the songs, elevating them from mostly seventies style radio friendly pop into psychedelic-light pieces.