专辑简介

A true drifter, Tim has always enjoyed writing on the run. His previous two albums were written during moves to Melbourne (2004’s Blazey) and then Auckland (2007’s Hummabyes), and established him as a talented songwriter with a slanted and romantic perspective. As if he could only develop further by moving farther, a shift to Barcelona for five months remarkably inspired an improvement in his writing. Deep and dreamy, the songs from this period make up the bulk of Big World, which was recorded when Tim returned to Auckland and co-produced the album at home throughout 2009 with his then-housemate Jeremy Toy (Opensouls) on bass, keys, and additional guitars. Mixed by Jol Mulholland (the Checks, Motocade) and mastered by Dave Cooley (the Polyphonic Spree, Serge Gainsbourg), Big World’s foundation is solid: drums (Julien Dyne) and bass glow in the dusk with a countrified-R&B feel like Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac or Big Pink Band, a bliss-bath of woozy Wurlitzers and aqueous Rhodes conjure silvery nights and blue mornings, and guitars like satellites dart across darkling skies. These primary parts give Big World the satisfyingly thick texture of classic rock, and are what’s most noticeable and familiar about the album’s sleek surfaces. But they don’t wholly account for the music’s deepness. Emotional complexity occurs where classic poptimistic weft is warped with distantly murmuring synth-storms and feedback-clouds that evoke an individual trying to measure his own (in-)significance. These moments, such as the stoic refrain of “holding on... holding on,” amid washes of dissonant feedback and cascading glockenspiel in ‘70 Angels’, hint at a swamping randomness in the world, but their musical expression is extremely controlled: adult composure never gives way to despairing emotionalism, and the balance is bewitching. But for all its instinctual (and never intellectual) foraging for answers, Big World is an exquisitely tuneful pop album that simply urges singing-along to. With backing vocals by Ben King (Goldenhorse), the relaxed groove and four playful key changes of ‘Love Pie’ recall Tim’s own recent contribution of ‘Love Turns Wild’ to the Motown-inspired Open Souls record (Standing in the Rain), and in terms of heart-swelling excitement, the memory-rush of ‘Rhythm of the River’ is perhaps surpassed only by the whirling heights that ‘Beatle’ reaches. Musically luscious and lyrically illuminating, ‘Beatle’ defines the artistic growth necessary to making this, Tim’s third and best album. Instead of being a worshipful hat-tip to the Fab Four, it is a sobering reproof to the idleness of too much dreaming, which only leaves one “stuck in the ground.” The seriousness of this challenge to shape up is illustrated by violins that elevate and redouble the wake-up call: “You could live your life a Beatle... walk in somebody’s footsteps; [but] it’s dangerous to.” Taken as a self-reproach to find his own voice, it’s remarkable that Tim achieves his aim by the first gorgeous chorus. With a sharper sense of identity, he gains the confidence to make an album that should surprise anyone paying attention. It’s also a way of looking at and moving on from the past, which explains why, despite its childlike openness and interest in the world, this is not a nostalgic album. Why go backwards when, as Tim says himself, “It just gets better... It’s coming up”?