Big Adult - Owner's Manual

Big Adult 

​Owner's Manual
self-released; 2018
​
3.7 out of 5

By Jay Freeman

Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Big Adult is what you might call “a pop punk band turned into after getting a job at a used music store and nerding out on synths” might sound like – I like this band already. The band’s debut was recorded by band member Danny Lemmon and mixed and mastered by James Garcia at Over the Counter Culture Records.The group consisting of Lemmon, Mike Dawl and Brent Lawson all participate in playing bass, drums and synths together which really makes for some interesting band performance interactions. And for word nerds like me, who value the minds of a songwriters’ lyrics, Big Adult included the words to each song.

To start things off, “Talk More” is lively and has a total nerd vibe with all the quirks and funny sounds coming from the synths and off beats to the drums. The funniest line by far is – “Smelling my bullshit / don’t make it any easier to shovel.”  “Sexy Pastry Chef” definitely has some great and creatively written hooks on the synth, not to mention provocative, comedic-laden lyrics about meeting a sexy pastry chef at a Halloween party. “Lunch Box” has more of a punk vibe with the jumpy rhythms. The words suggest a reflective time of being and/or learning “how” to be a punk (i.e. doing the right things, hanging with the right people, buying the right clothes.)

“Song About Divorce” is the band’s sad ballad moment and for the most part the tempo is slower than the other songs. The words get pretty serious with the songwriter coming to terms (?) about how a divorce makes or made them feel – “as if I am my own psychoanalyst / even though something about that feels amiss / I don’t know if I could handle this in any other way.” “Teeth vs Tongue” starts off like a battle between the bass guitar player and random synth sounds from some arcade game. The writing is really well done and written in both first and third person.

“New Year” has a familiar old school vibe with more guitars added cranking out some great riffs and a sweet solo take towards the end.

​If you value a unique sound that lies somewhere outside the usual pop punk band template, complete with synths and a few f-bombs dropped, then Big Adult is your band. For me, I thought the band’s songwriting was truly fun to indulge in – the words didn’t read like typical song lyrics, in my opinion, which made them all the more entertaining and expressive.

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