Office Culture - Big Time Things (2022) Hi-Res

'Big Time Things' is a story of crossed wires and missed connections, sleepless nights and aborted plans. On the third album by Brooklyn-based pianist Winston Cook-Wilson-led band Office Culture, every element of text-rich and emotionally complex music is enchanted to conjure up the same vision. is. The chorus offers humble oaths (“I only want you to be happy”) and anxious breaks (“Stop, I feel nervous”), while the band swells, spreads, and the arrangement incorporates strings, horns, and backing vocals. , suggesting how each moment casts its own shadow.

Office Culture's most ambitious projects are also the most intimate and thematic. Whereas the previous work introduced vast city landscapes and characters, 'Big Time Things' zooms in on each lonely window, so close that it can be hard to tell what you're looking at. . In Cook-Wilson's hands, it's not always easy to distinguish between love songs and breakup songs, moments of connection and utter loneliness, forward momentum and quickening spirals.

The music behind his words suggests that there is wholeness in the blur. Office Culture, consisting of Cook-Wilson, drummer Pat Kelly, bassist Charlie Kaplan and guitarist Ian Wayne, sounds more dynamic and alive than ever, their music full of intricate detail and openness. While there are still remnants of their longtime mainstays such as Joni Mitchell, Blue Nile and the ECM catalogue, 'Big Time Things' expands into new and adventurous territory. Sometimes it reminds me of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, who backed Scott Walker in the 1980s.

Cook-Wilson departs from all songwriting traditions, singing his feelings beyond language ("A Word") and feeling too quiet to be recorded ("Suddenly"), drawing his thoughts to open-ended conclusions. pursue. This approach leads the band to moments of tightrope dissonance on “Line” and breakthroughs that glide with new grace. On "Elegance", the band rides into a soft and catchy groove that momentarily stops and instantly begins.As they reach a steady climax, Cook-Wilson looks us in the eye and gives us this wisdom.