With the residual, tinnital ring of PPP likely still lingering in your insides, mercifully, Fear – a second to come from Big Ups’ forthcoming Two Parts Together full-length – makes for a more restrained, dextrous listen. It’s a sound less commonly associated with the NYC four-piece, and proves vaguely evocative of fellow North Americans Ought – had Tim Darcy & Co. spent that bit more time with the Dead Kennedys’ catalogue, instead of that of Talking Heads – but with Joe Galarraga’s barbed gargling leading the line, the word ‘restrained’ is of course deployed as a kind of comparative modifier. He’ll existentially question: “I don’t wanna let go/ The moments after waking/ Am I the same person/ I was when I was dreaming?” atop Amar Lal’s chiming, matutinal guitar line, to create a[nother] track that’s quite unquestionably “worth believing” therein.
Two Parts Together is available from May 18th via Exploding In Sound Records, while Big Ups play Birthdays on June 14th.