BIG HUGE - Cruel World LP

Perhaps sharing members with Sheer Mag, their stock in trade is a rough-hewn take on 70s rock – there are what must contractually be referred to as “duelling guitars” in the style of Thin Lizzy, bursts of slightly funky southern rock à la Lynyrd Skynyrd, bits of choppy new-wave guitar and a whole lot of appealingly clunky pop heaviness that brings to mind nothing so much as an extremely low-budget Kiss. BIG HUGE's music stuffs hip-shaking hooks and burly riffs within impeccably structured pop songs, wrapped in lyrics both open-hearted and openly political.