Birmingham duo Big Special have announced their new 10-track EP, ‘O’Joy!’, due June 5 via SO Recordings — and they’ve brought a new single along with it.
If you’ve been sleeping on Big Special, now’s a real good time to wake up. The Birmingham, UK duo — vocalist Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney — have been on a pretty relentless tear these last few years, and ‘O’Joy!’ is the latest proof they’re not slowing down anytime soon.
Alongside the announcement, the band share Only Free When Sleeping, a brooding, head-down stomper that does exactly what it says on the tin. Per the band: “When all that shows up in observation is negative, when all news is bad news and you just look at your feet and curse the cruelty and the faff of the modern day… When you just wanna go to bed and let your dreams make up a different story for you to smile at, just for a little bit, until you wake again.” Relatable? Yeah, a little too much.
The EP itself is a fascinating concept — Big Special describe ‘O’Joy!’ as a companion piece built from the “fallen parts” of their first two albums. Songs that didn’t quite fit the emotional arc of those records, reworked and given their own home. As they put it, they wanted to “empty the clip” creatively before moving on to whatever comes next. There’s something genuinely refreshing about a band that would rather release the work than sit on it, repackage it later, or let it collect dust in a vault.
The 10-track EP also includes previously shared singles Sluglife, Plaintive Native, and Dragged Up a Hill (and thrown down the other side), alongside new cuts like Lazarus, Family Bones, and Garden of Fools. The record is dedicated to the memory of their friend Handsome James Borrer.
On the live front, Big Special are heading back stateside this fall — kicking things off at Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta on September 20, followed by a run of Midwest and Southeast U.S. dates supporting Lambrini Girls through early October.
‘O’Joy!‘ is out June 5 via SO Recordings. Stream Only Free When Sleeping now and get familiar.
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