The four songs on 'Big Day' embrace brevity to embody Slow Pulp’s odd, fluid amalgamation of many core tenets of rock-and-roll: mounting tensions, anthemic quality, and high drama slathered onto the simplest observations. Given their youthfulness, 'Big Day' distills the challenges of youth to interrogate the familiar terrain of uncertainty with a more inquisitive, flexible intuition. Memory and ego lend a thematic heartbeat, lifted by Matthews’ razor-sharp precision and the playful dialogue between Stoehr and Leeds’ agility on their guitars. Massey often leans into the wistful qualities of her voice, dissecting the fallout of failures and self-image from their joyous inception to their frustrating demise, then repeat. When one thinks they’ve pinned her, Massey wails and howls, indulging...