Albums
of the year
2009
7
The Big Pink
A Brief History of Love

“A Brief History Of Love is by turns earth-shakingly frightening and blissfully embracing; a noise to damage eardrums, to destabilise bedroom walls; a sound to erupt from loudspeakers in city centres and fall out onto the streets as the 11th plague. It is – when it wants to be – decadent, riveting, rebellious and hopelessly romantic. They say timing is everything. Well, it has been a long wait for a British album like this, the kind that transcends age group appeal and inspires cool kids to form bands and geeky kids to lose themselves in music’s history.” – musicOMH
“A Brief History Of Love (blends) both the swirling, shoegazy elements of Creation Records and the raved-up psychedelic dance flair of the Verve. It’s a throwback sound and style that still manages to sound thoroughly modern, with big programmed beats and massive, spiraling guitars layered endlessly over an underlying lyrical thread that seems to try in vain to chronicle the mercurial history of affairs of the heart. The record gets off to a hazy, expansive start with the slow-burning, dreamlike groove of “Crystal Visions.” It sets the moody tone of the album perfectly, with its blend of screeching, fuzzed out guitars, hypnotic bass and an infectious beat. The album is brimming with cocksure confidence, and is packed with layer upon layer of compelling beats, rhythms and melodies, as well as a lyrical theme that everyone with a heart that they’ve given away can relate to.” – Culture Bully


