Before a Million Universes

Description

Big Ups second LP, Before A Million Universes, is at once a fist in the face of complacency and a sonic affirmation to, in Walt Whitmans words, let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.

Pretty heady subject matter Joe Galarraga (vocals), Amar Lal (guitar), Carlos Salguero Jr. (bass), and Brendan Finn (drums), met studying music technology at NYU. Five years later, the citys notorious crucible of garbage, money, and humanity has had a profound and delightful impact on their art.
Tell me what youre worth / Salary, two weeks off work? Galarraga screams on Capitalized, as the bassline frantically roams our conscience like a wet-nosed dog. Galarragas vocals burn with the heat of a thousand day jobs.
Yet all this righteousness is worth as much as a Che t-shirt if it lacks humility, and more than any of the bands previous work, Before A Million Universes plumbs the depths of self-deception in wickedly clever ways. Who doesnt own a coat made of The Feathers Of Yes?

Count the ideas in my head so I can love every one, our protagonist coos before Lals guitar tosses lightning bolts through his cloud. And it feels so warm / wrapped in self-righteous truths.

Yawp unspools the exercise in futility that is the overexamined life to the tune of a lumbering giant stomping across a field of insecurities. How many times can you be poured through the still to the point of perfection? / Ive dropped myself through the coils so many times but always come out with something missing / And the proofs so high it makes me dizzy.

The albums emotional and musical core lies in National Parks, a song Galarraga wrote as a tribute to the sacrifices his mother made to raise him.
Were led through the anger and bewildermentat his moms solitary walks through their neighborhood and the selfishness inherent to childhoodand into a coda where you can almost see the sun streaming through the trees of Galarragas park, drums steady and swelling, a transition in tone and mood that this band has nearly perfected. I think I saw her say to herself / This is everything Ive missed.

Before A Million Universes is Big Ups at their most sincere, urgent, and vital a salty kiss from the wet lips of Brooklyns bard.

RIYL: Fugazi, Rites of Spring, Minor Threat, Drive Like Jehu, Bad Brains, Shellac, Black Flag, Trash Talk.