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Big Time Things

by Office Culture

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1.
Suddenly 04:41
2.
Well, hey yourself I barely expected to write myself Not to mention to hear back Well, how’s your health? What an amazing world we live in now It’s so barren here I’ve thought of you often And suddenly I was watching the weather Trying to cobble something together To echo your sound Hungrily, I’d repeat what you asked me My thoughts would elbow right past me And there I was at your service Stop I feel nervous Stop I feel nervous I smell rust Stop I feel nervous Wondering if it’s you I should trust Seems like big time things are bothering both of us Well, hey old friend Something has set you off again Brought you back from some strange land But in the end You’ll have no more clever lines to send You’ll drop the act you practiced so often Suddenly I forgot to remember Those letters returned to sender With no postage or codes Ill at ease, choking under the pressure Guessing at what we can’t measure We’ll wonder if we deserve this Stop I feel nervous Stop I feel nervous I smell rust Stop I feel nervous Wondering if it’s you I should trust Seems like big time things are bothering both of us
3.
Timing 06:47
4.
5.
Line 03:29
6.
Elegance 04:48 video
Elegance, fashion, and taste You and me and the world in one cold embrace We pull out of it slowly when we feel out of place We stuff crumpled receipts in cracks in the walls So somebody might know we’d been here at all As if poets and kings would sing of our rise and fall It was our parents’ generation, we should’ve remembered to call Everybody’s got a list to check off but Nobody knows what they wrote it for Well, you don’t have to be like that with me baby Lists never did me any good before And you said “don’t look at me like that” But I only want you to be happy Don’t you go giving up the ghost on me I only want you to be happy And back at home Your mind can soar And I won’t be there anymore Elegance, a dry joke on the phone Well, there’s more to the story but I’ll mask my tone Cause we’ve got better hills to die on and troops of our own When I think of the ideas they implanted in you All the marks to fall short of, rusty twists of the truth Sing me a song of that ruin like it had stolen your youth In the haze of that memory I thought I’d lost it all too But everybody’s got regrets to shrug off Everybody’s got a friend they never call I won’t ever be a fly on you, babe I’ll crouch, cock it back, spear it to the wall I won’t look at you like that I only want you to be happy Don’t you go giving up the ghost on me I only want you to be happy And back at home Your mind can soar And I won’t be there anymore I only want you to be happy I only want you to be happy I only wanted you I want you to be happy I only want you to be happy I only wanted you
7.
I don’t seem like the type But these dreams are somebody else’s, not mine My dreams had legs They had their own time zones You could see them build up in my eyes And we would work through the night just building A model of our lives I thought those days were behind us I catch those little reminders I catch those little reminders Those little reminders of our love I hear my voice speaking But it sounds like somebody else’s, not mine In my head it blows like a foghorn The boat leaves, we’re still standing in line And we would talk through the night just picturing What the sea might have been like We tighten the ties that bind us And catch those little reminders I catch those little reminders Those little reminders of our love We pray that no one will find us And catch those little reminders We catch those little reminders Those little reminders of our love
8.
A Word 04:33
9.
Rules 05:37

about

'Big Time Things' is a story of crossed wires and missed connections, sleepless nights and scrapped plans. On the third album from Office Culture, the Brooklyn-based band led by pianist-songwriter Winston Cook-Wilson, the magic is in how every element of their texturally rich, emotionally complex music conjures these same visions. The choruses offer humble pledges (“I only want you to be happy”) and uneasy interruptions (“Stop, I feel nervous”); the band swells and sprawls; the arrangements incorporate strings, horns, and backing vocals, suggesting how each moment casts its own shadow.

Office Culture’s most ambitious project is also their most intimate and thematically focused. Where previous albums introduced a vast cityscape of scenery and characters, 'Big Time Things' zooms into each lonely window, so close that it can be difficult to know what exactly we’re looking at. In Cook-Wilson’s hands, it’s not always easy to differentiate love songs from breakup songs, moments of connection from total isolation, forward momentum or a quickening spiral.

The music behind his words suggests the full story lies in the blur. Comprising Cook-Wilson alongside drummer Pat Kelly, bassist Charlie Kaplan, and guitarist Ian Wayne, Office Culture have never sounded so dynamic or alive, their music so full of intricate detail and open air. While you can still hear traces of their longtime staples—Joni Mitchell, the Blue Nile, the ECM catalog—'Big Time Things' expands into new and adventurous territory. Occasionally, it recalls Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters band backing Scott Walker in the 1980s; other times, it feels like D’Angelo’s 'Voodoo' recast as an opera.

As Cook-Wilson sings about feelings that transcend language (“A Word”) and moods that shift too quietly to be registered (“Suddenly”), he seeks to break from any songwriting tradition, following his thoughts to their open-ended conclusions. This approach leads the band to uncharacteristic moments of dissonance, as in the skronking tightrope of “Line,” and breakthroughs that glide with newfound grace. In “Elegance,” the band rides a tender, catchy groove, stopping and starting on a dime. As they reach a steady climax, Cook-Wilson looks us in the eyes and offers this wisdom:

Everybody’s got a list to check off but
Nobody knows what they wrote it for
Well, you don’t have to be like that with me baby
Lists never did me any good before

And so, he tears up his lists, looks inward, and follows his heart.

-Sam Sodomsky

credits

released September 30, 2022

Written and arranged by Office Culture
except “Little Reminders” string arrangement by Ryan El-Solh, Carmen Rothwell and Winston Cook-Wilson.

Produced by Winston Cook-Wilson, Christopher Andrew McDonald and Jeremy McDonald
Mixed and mastered by Christopher Andrew McDonald
Engineered by Christopher Andrew McDonald and Jeremy McDonald at Mason Jar Music, Brooklyn, NY
Additional engineering by Winston Cook-Wilson, Alec Spiegelman, Ian Wayne, Caitlin Pasko, Carmen Rothwell, Jess Tambellini, and Patrick Kelly

Design by Jules Evens
Paintings by Winston Cook-Wilson

Office Culture is:
Charlie Kaplan - electric basses
Ian Wayne - electric guitar, backing vocals
Patrick Kelly - drums, percussion
Winston Cook-Wilson - vocals, keyboards, programming, percussion

Additional personnel:
Alec Spiegelman - alto and tenor saxophone (3, 8, 9), bass clarinet (2, 8)
Alena Spanger - backing vocals (7)
Ben Russell - violin (1, 3, 6, 7), viola (1, 3, 6)
Caitlin Pasko - backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Carmen Rothwell - backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 9), upright bass (3)
Christopher Andrew McDonald - synth (1, 2, 4, 9)
Cole Kamen-Green - trumpet (3, 7, 9), electric valve instrument (2)
Jeremy McDonald - synth/programming (1, 2, 4, 5, 9), auxiliary bass (1), percussion (6)
Jess Tambellini - modular synth (5, 6, 9)
Kristen Drymala - cello (1, 3)

Special thanks to these people for their invaluable creative input: Caitlin Pasko, Alena Spanger, Ryan El-Solh, Carmen Rothwell, Dan Knishkowy, Ryan Weiner, Frank Meadows, Sam Sodomsky, and Andy Cush.

Additional huge thanks: Adam Downey, Tom Abbs, Evan Welsh, Cody DeFalco, Jules Evens, Andrew Stocker, Kyle Wilson, Theo Cote, Andrew Whalen, Stacey & Cecily McDonald, and Mom & Dad.

“Will we always be students of ourselves?”
-Silvina Ocampo

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Office Culture Brooklyn, New York

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