I love the first and never got around to getting the second. I always have described as Robyn Hitchcock meets The Who. The Bigger Lovers change in sound is to due the long period of the time between when they recorded the first and it was released. But the it was finally released the band had already started writing the material for the second.
A good friend wrote the following review of it on Fufkin.com, she is passionate about her power pop and writes what she really feels about a record.
The Bigger Lovers
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
(Black Dog Records)
www.blackdogrecords.com www.thebiggerlovers.com Released March 13, 2001
What It's Like to Be Addicted to Sugar-Coated Crunch
Oh man, did I ever blow a gasket when I got this CD from Philadelphia's four-piece The Bigger Lovers. Named after a band member's cat. Who is indignantly exposed for all the world to see, indelicately splayed on the inside of the CD's case.
Anyway, I thought I was maybe catching a glimpse of the power pop promised land, 'cept I knew I hadn't died recently. I did practically start drooling on my steering wheel, if that counts for anything.
Perfectly balanced sugar and crunch always make for a tasty musical snack, and this has got both in abundance, and loadsa hooks holding it together. "I'm Here" and "Forever Is Not So Long" are very reminiscent of great '60s and early '70s pop we grew up hearing on the AM radio. "Casual Friday" is simply heartbreaking, it's so good.
Nice three part harmonies all around, some organ thrown in here and there, some handclaps tossed around and the occasional and not inappropriate appearance of a pedal steel. What is the deal these days with steel guitars on pop records? I notice, having grown up on cheesy country and western (that's what it was in those days---a completely different breed than the country we hear now. I'm talkin' Hee-Haw and Porter Wagner back to back, but I'm off on some irrelevant tangent yet again) that adding pedal steel to a song will do one of two things: it'll turn a tune to a lonesome cattle herding cry, or make a song sound like the dying embers of a Hawaiian luau. In this instance, as exemplified by "America Undercover" and the record's closer "Out of Sight", it's more the latter. Oh, and it jangles and chimes in all the right places, too. In case anyone is curious about that.
Imagine what you'd get by mixing a nice crunchin' power pop band like the Posies with the Beach Boys, and you'll have an almost adequate notion of what we've got here.
I'll be playing How I Learned to Stop Worrying all summer. I've already been playing it to death. This is my first pick of 2001 as one of those records I have a weird love affair with---you know, where I drag the CD around with me, and sleep with it and all that kinda kinky stuff I do when I fall really hard for an album. Oh yes, I have found proof yet again that no mere mortal man can ever take the place of a great recording. They could call their next record The Bigger Lovers Make Your Boyfriend Obsolete. DAMN! THIS IS A GREAT POWER POP RECORD.
