The Big Mess

Description

Indies only LPcol is a multicolour swirl vinyl w/ an A-side locked groove with printed insert + DL.
Standard vinyl is the same just on black vinyl.

Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen of Tanlines are indie-rock lifers turned reasonable, happy middle-aged fathers of two, figuring out their place in a chaotic culture and industry that can no longer command their full are emblematic of a particular time and place that doesnt really exist anymore, yet here they are existing, and thriving, in 2023.

The Big Mess came together when Emm and his family moved from Brooklyn to rural Connecticut, while Cohen launched a marketing career and a successful podcast and stayed in the city. Emm continued writing songs hundreds of them through all the weirdness of the past few years, but he wasnt exactly sure who he was writing them for. I spent years figuring out in my mind, What is my musical life going to look like? he says. I just kept writing.

Cohen gave Emm his blessing to continue Tanlines, even if his own contributions would be limited due to his own non-musical obligations. Im like, Whatever you can do to keep this thing going, do it, Cohen says. And with that, Tanlines was reborn.

By January 2022 Emm felt he had a body of work that made sense as a Tanlines album. Cohen spent ten days with Emm at his Connecticut studio, along with unofficial third Tanline Patrick Ford (!!!). This was tied together with a sleek final mix from Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) at his famed Tarquin Studios, resulting in a clear vision of what Emms musical life was going to look like: The Big Mess.

The first sounds on The Big Mess are the title tracks coiled guitars and thumping drums, building into the kind of outsize, choral rock anthem artists like Tanlines were almost a reaction to. It is warm and nostalgic, and Cohen likens a lot of the prevailing mood to a sepia filter on a digital photo. He continues, we were pretty intentional about making this the first song on the album, underlining the way that this is a new phase of the band. Cohen says.

The moody, scintillating Burns Effect serves as one of the biggest pushes forward for the Tanlines sound, and for Emm as a lyricist. He says that the song is deep and dark and dangerous, but in a fun way. Its one of the more personal tracks on the album where this ungrounded part of my personality surfaces, but with an over-the-top machismo, almost an ironic character.

Other tracks like New Reality and closer The Age of Innocence are also demonstrably guitar-forward in ways that wouldnt seem obvious for Tanlines (despite Emms pedigree in austere avant-garde math-rock outfits Storm & Stress and Don Caballero), but Emm is less sure The Big Mess is a total departure. Im

trying to make these absolutely simple things, he says. I think of these songs as Rothko paintings: Theyre big and theyre bold and theyre seemingly straightforward, but they have a lot of depth and they engage with you and make you feel something.