Big Huge New Circle, a London-based band that apparently made their bones cracking books at Cambridge, navigate the oft-tricky terrain of alternative rock and jazz. “Pearl” is the first taste of their forthcoming EP, Daylight Chase. It’s a delicate, piano-based tune at its start, somewhat reminiscent of early Radiohead, with the instrumentation and production expanding exponentially the longer the song flows, with the goings-on spiced by a staccato rhythm and soaring saxophone. In a way, it’s akin to a brewing storm, with strong winds blowing forth dark clouds from the horizon.
The press release quotes the band’s Lewis Todd, who wrote the song, as explaining, “Lyrically,‘Pearl’ is based on a medieval elegy of the same name. It’s a really bizarre and haunting poem that seems to reach out of its own time and into ours. It holds both an unspeakable grief and an indestructible hope and the song is really about what it’s like to live in between those two things. Also in the mix is the poetry of Barry MacSweeney, who’s been a big influence on my writing. He also wrote a series of poems called ‘Pearl.’”
The Old Grey Cat 