SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: OFFICE CULTURE – BIG TIME THINGS

Office Culture
Big Time Things
Northern Spy

Trying to swim in the waters of complex, sophisticated pop that spreads into rock, jazz, and elsewhere is something quite a few artists with good musical taste will try, but not that many will succeed in.

Reaching the heights of Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout, Talk Talk, and not that many others can be a daunting task, as good taste doesn’t mean you can successfully transfer that taste into good music.

Brooklyn’s Office Culture can possibly turn out to be one of those exceptions among relatively new artists. On Big Time Things, their third album, they turn that cool, often jazzy vibe into a set of equally cool and utterly listenable songs.

Pianist-songwriter Winston Cook-Wilson, guitarist Ian Wayne, bassist Charlie Kaplan, and drummer Pat Kelly, not only have a delicate musical palate, but are able to turn that palate into a set of tunes that are at the same time complex and so easy on the ear, so that complexity simply vanishes and leaves the songs and equally distinguishable lyrics lingering in the air long after they have concluded.

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