Coming soon
BIG SPECIAL reveal plans for extended EP ‘O’JOY!’
The forthcoming project is a compendium of “the fallen parts” of their first two albums.
BIG SPECIAL are back with the news that they’ll be sharing a 10-track EP, ‘O’JOY!’, on 5th June via SO Recordings.
The new project will feature all three of their recent run of singles (‘SLUGLIFE’, ‘PLAINTIVE NATIVE’, and ‘DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side)’), as well as new offering ‘ONLY FREE WHEN SLEEPING’ - a downcast but quietly determined cut the Black Country duo have described as “a head-down walking song”.
Of the track, the pair have shared: “[It’s for] 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. Head down, stomp through another day.”
Having broken through in 2024 with their striking debut ‘POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES’, BIG SPECIAL - comprised of vocalist Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney - have had a whirlwind few years, the emotional fallout of which they explored on last year’s second LP ‘NATIONAL AVERAGE’.
‘O’JOY!’, then, is an amalgamation of both these periods - a collection of “songs that didn’t fit in the right place at the right time” that the band wanted to share in order to “empty our clip and then go off to write our next thing”.
Speaking on the EP, they’ve reflected: “It all seems like such a downer, but it’s a positive thing to write songs like this, it’s important to remember that songs aren’t pamphlets. They are emotional reactions to how you feel at a certain time, and you need to let yourself feel and express. It’s probably the only reason to write at all, so that you can be who you are when you aren’t writing. Picking up the pen in the first place is an act of hope.”
Listen to ‘ONLY FREE WHEN SLEEPING’ below.
‘O’JOY!’ tracklist:
1. **
2. PLAINTIVE NATIVE
3. ONLY FREE WHEN SLEEPING
4. LAZARUS
5. THE WAKE
6. FAMILY BONES
7. GARDEN OF FOOLS
8. SLUGLIFE
9. DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side)
10. HOTEL
You can catch BIG SPECIAL live this summer at a slew of fests around the UK (and beyond) with more dates still set to be announced. See you in the fields…
MAY 2026
21 Bearded Theory Festival, Derbyshire
JUNE 2026
12 Bradninch Music Festival, Devon
20 TRSMT Festival, Glasgow
JULY 2026
31 Valley Festival, Chew Magna. Bristol
AUGUST 2026
08 Castelo Rock Festival, Muros, Spain
14-16 Boomtown Festival, Hampshire
22 Beautiful Days Festival, Devon
SEPTEMBER 2026
04 Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham
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