Big Bliss - “A Seat at the Table”
Photo by Kevin Condon
It’s going to be awhile before we see the end of music written in the midst of the pandemic, but the silver lining is that it keeps our stack of submissions filled with gems like “A Seat at the Table,” from Brooklyn’s Big Bliss.
This post-punk trio have a sound that will light a fire in the hearts of music lovers who are keen on anything from R.E.M. to Echo & the Bunnymen. “A Seat at the Table” comes ahead of their album, Vital Return, and if this track is any indication as to what the rest of the record has in store for us, they’ve done us a favor by providing a pre-order.
The track begins with the rhythm section pounding out the tempo as a synth approaches from off in the distance. The guitar joins, quickly followed by Tim Race’s voice, which has a really vibrant ‘80s Michael Stipe-ness about it. The music is fantastic, but the subject matter is also extremely relevant, as stated by Race, while he reflected upon the events of Columbine, 9/11, and the January 6th insurrection: “Every one of my peers shares a wealth of experiences like these. They are our generation’s where-were-you-when moments. Television offered us just enough distance that life appeared able to go on, only with another modicum more generalized mortal fear than the time before.” This concept is burned into the flesh of the lyrics and it is very easy to play this track on repeat as a melodious mirror to our broken society.
With “A Seat at the Table,” Big Bliss have managed to completely win us over. What we have here is a reminder of where we’ve been, the events that shaped our lives as we were coming up, and the decent human beings that most of us strive to be because of it.
-TM