Review of Dave Bush & Food's "The Big One"

The Big One (1999) is the debut album from the American indie band Dave Bush & Food. Being a small group it's hard to find information on them, so their bio has to suffice. Their sound, according to the biography, "is music you gotta pop in when you're driving to that little seaside cabana for a much needed vacation- windows down, sun shining, big-ass coffee in your travel mug..."

I have no idea what any of that means either, so perhaps a little more detail is needed. One thing that is quickly apparent about this album is that much of the music has a nice, nostalgic taste about it. Songs like 'Great Unknown', 'Day by Day', 'Ain't Lookin' to be Found' and 'Beautifully Wrong', with their 60s feel (a product of Dave Bush's clear, bright vocal delivery, the friendly guitars and innocuous drumming), remind the listener of a childhood they never had. And they're very catchy pop songs too.

Continuing on with this idea are the two slow songs off this record. 'Invisible' is a very sparse and lovely piece of music which is very reminiscent of John Lennon's 'Julia' (off the Beatles' White Album). "That song," Bush says, "comes out of living in New York City where you usually feel like no one even knows you exist when you walk down the street." The beautiful 'Janie', probably the best of the ten tracks, sounds like it could be an unreleased Beach Boys number.

A couple of songs stand in contrast to all this. The title track and 'Make Me' both have a very jazzy feel to them. 'The Big One' is an excellent song with a surprising edginess about it, as Bush explains: "I went on vacation to California last year and felt a tiny tremor. That got me looking at all these beautiful people, wearing beautiful clothes, driving beautiful cars - totally ignoring the fact that the entire county could be shaken to bits at any moment." 'Make Me', however, doesn't quite meet the high standard of the rest of the album. The bass guitar is very cool, but the song just ambles about without really going anywhere.

Rounding off the record is 'So Jah Seh', a reworked version of an old Bob Marley song- which doesn't really click- and 'The Price', which is a cute, little song, but for some reason only lasts for 56 seconds. It would be interesting to know how good this song could've been if it was longer.

All in all this is a very pleasing debut. It's not the best album ever written, but it definitely

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