Photo by Kevin Condon
Big Bliss return with the first single since the release of their lauded 2018 album, At Middle Distance, at a time when it feels like the entirety of society is slowly awakening from a fitful slumber that began not long after the band was last active.
With barely a note of fanfare, Big Bliss launch into “Sleep Paralysis” with a sense of wide-eyed immediacy. Big, trembling vocals, energetic chords, and a rhythm section that moves with a measured sense of urgency propel the track comfortably into the same lofty realms occupied by 80s and 90s demigods R.E.M., Yo La Tengo, and their ilk while not shying away from the more radio-friendly interpretations of the genre crafted by later bands such as Better Than Ezra and Gin Blossoms. Elements of Big Bliss’ sound dig even deeper, with icy hints of Joy Division’s proto-new wave surfacing in the bassline, tempering the flames of the burning alt rock heart the band so openly wears upon its sleeve.
It’s a compelling mix of influences not heard with any relative recency that unapologetically jolts one out of the present and back into a swirling kaleidoscope of forgotten memories that tumble free like water released from a dam unconsciously constructed through decades of life experiences. For those not alive to experience the alt rock heyday, the effect is a similarly uncontrollable sense of nostalgia for a past era preserved so diligently on tapes and reels and known only through the rose-tinted glasses of a cultural machine that operates on constant revisionary refinements to manufacture a curated context.
Even as the tempo shifts up, “Sleep Paralysis” is imbued with a powerful sense of momentum, a musical representation of the relentless forward linearity of time that refuses to stop no matter how much we desire even a moment of respite. People, places fading into the distance like roadside telephone poles in a rearview mirror. But rather than exist in fear or surrender to despair, Big Bliss choose to narrate a specific instant on life’s journey, exploding a fleeting blip of thoughts and feeling and emotions into a vast expression that blossoms like a supernova, radiating in all directions from a central point of being.
“Sleep Paralysis” is one song among a tracklist crafted in response to a series of naturally significant events in the lives of brothers Tim and Cory Rice that finds its home on Big Bliss’ upcoming LP Vital Return. “Sleep Paralysis” translates perspective-altering moments into an impressively earnest anthem, reinterpreting themes of loss and loneliness into the tangible lucidity that exists within the fleeting moments before falling asleep or falling in love, when the object of one’s desire is seemingly present and within reach, only to recede back into memory as one remains affixed to time’s unstoppable progress.
In a strikingly cinematic video directed by Devan Davies and produced by Stephen Mondics, Big Bliss cope with the vacuum of loss by giving new life to a renewed bond between two people drawn together by the unstoppable magnetism of love. The imagery is surreal and bold, a waking dream expanding to fill the empty rooms and barren spaces of a home left cold and empty with new warmth as somnambulant characters press beyond the veil between wakefulness and sleep toward a connection that sings across the passing years.
Big Bliss are celebrating the release of “Sleep Paralysis” with a performance October 9th at Union Pool. Steam their catalog on Spotify and follow the band on Instagram.
