The Big Pink - Hit The Ground (Superman)

Fucking hell, there’s reinventions and then there’s this. Forget those walls of sound and beat drops, the Big Pink have embraced semi-acoustic strums and an anthemic sound that’s less "pill-fuelled 2AM epiphany" and more Scrubs season finale. And you know what, it’s quite something. I mean, it’s in no way perfect; at heart it’s still very much by-the-numbers laddy anthemia, but it’s been dressed as best it can to disguise those faults. Powered on by clunking piano loop and a sample of Laurie Anderson’s bizarre 1981 hit "O Superman" , it’s telling that the band whose existence has been predicated on creating (and to some degree, maintaining) an air of trendy knowingness that keeps them streets ahead of both the zeitgeist and their contemporaries. But with this they appear to be abandoning all that, casting off their fashionable shackles and embracing their calling as a big proper pop band. It would appear that the claims of "going hip-hop" and the achingly samey comeback sing 'Stay Gold' were just a smokescreen to soften the blow of the big reveal: that the Big Pink do give a fuck about longevity and legacy and that maybe, just maybe, that they’re built to last.

By Ned Powley