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about this album
A true drifter, Tim Guy 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-)signifi
