“Velvet”
from the album A Brief History of Love
2009
iTunes
Anyone can build a wall of sound, but only a special class of shoegazer can make the layers of fuzz and distortion coalesce into a real song. On their debut LP, London duo the Big Pink — multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell — nail the balance between gloomy, monolithic drone and songcraft. “Velvet” is dreamy and dirgelike, but undeniably catchy. The dance-floor-ready “Dominos” is front-loaded with a massive, chanted hook: “These girls fall like dominos.” The lyrics feel a bit tossed off, but they don’t get in the way — that wall of fuzz is good for something.