‘Those Days Are Gone' EP by Big Decision

Yes: those Big Decision members are embracing their second phase career with glee and have followed up last year's ‘Twenty Four' EP  with another  one entitled ‘Those Days Are Gone' which they recorded last November in Leicestershire again with the same original lineup. The constituent tracks being   "Those Days Are Gone", "Sinking Feeling" and "Give It A Chance".

Emotional awareness presumably looms large in their writing given the titles of tracks such as "Shake The Feeling" last time & "Sinking Feeling" on this one. Given their commitment to their creativity after three & a half decades, this sort of motivation is hardly surprising, though I find it interesting how much has spilled over into what they write about: occasionally overtly but there is a case for detecting an interest in reflecting on the more metaphysical aspects of life: something I suppose has been encouraged by the journey each has been on since they first formed.

Metrics don't really exist for the proposition "getting better as musicians" even if one assumes they have done. Listening to the music of their first phase incarnation, they sound pretty good back then. However if you (like me) listen out for it, you can hear a lightness of touch & greater confidence in knowing what not to play as well as what… which must reflect experience. That said, there also appears to be a deliberate adhesion to the musical values they started off with: an integrity of economy seeming to not want to waste a note nor to embellish songs needlessly with tricks picked up over time. That is certainly to their great credit.

There is also a surprisingly high quotient of wistfulness involved, especially for a band who seem to have embraced enjoyment of living as a key motif. The sheer foolishness of what they observe around them seems to spur the writing (and they don't necessarily exempt themselves from criticism) and again you get the impression that whatever motivated them to make music again, it was to say something worth saying, that they wanted to get off their minds rather than just (self) indulging in making stuff for the sake of it.

This is a lean & well honed EP: well worth the effort that went into it & well worth your time in giving it a listen.