song premiere: "The Big One" - No Aloha

words: Michael Brooks

Even though we’re all looking back on our favorite albums of the year, there’s still an abundance of great tunes being released, and we’ve definitely got a ripper for you today. We’re stoked to share with you “The Big One” from No Aloha. The five-piece Portland group features Brette Irish on lead vocals — who recently signed with our pals over at Good Cheer Records as a solo artist. Opening with a woozy guitar lead, the track’s incandescence of dream-pop guitars with lo-fi production melds perfectly with Irish’s untroubled vocals. The song describes the feeling of being on the brink of chaos (an earthquake, to be exact) and the only thing that matters to you is being next to the person you care about the most in this world. Before the booming chorus, against a backdrop of skittering electronic drums, Irish puts it as simple as possible: “You, you think about it/and you, you really care”, her voice full of sincerity, using a trick that all great songwriters know—less is more.