"Bye Bye Big Ocean (The End)"
A Sunny Day in Glasgow seem fascinated with the secondary parts of songs—the pre-choruses, the bridges, the breakdowns. Taking whole chapters out of the shoegaze gospel, they don't hurry to a climax, but rather highlight the connective tissue surrounding it. And just as form follows function, the abstract architecture of their songs create a dizzying, hypnotic mood that always feels like you're suspended between moments, kind of hovering around the main point.
"Bye Bye Big Ocean (The End)" is the opening cut from their upcoming album Sea When Absent and it sounds like a bunch of bridges strung together. The propulsive wall of guitar at the beginning kicks off one part, a breathy soprano voice with a little pinch of Auto-Tune floats over the next, then down-shifts again into a gentle breakdown, floating on and on until they sign-off over a few violins and cellos. The song never lands, just bleeds from one section to the next until, like some kind of spiritual road trip, the "journey" and "destination" blur together in an exalting and life-affirming way.