Based in Richmond, Virginia, Big Baby is the trio Ali Mislowsky (vocals/guitar) Chris Smith (ditto) and Brandon Iqbal (drums). Inspired by the “anyone-can-do-it accessibility of 90’s twee” as well as “the loud, sugary melodies of indie and power pop,” the band possess an aesthetic that is equal parts charming and fun, with a big slice of enthusiasm to boot.
Big Baby are about to release a new EP, Fizzy Cola, on Hidden Bay Records and Jigsaw Records, the follow-up to 2017’s Sour Patch on Egghunt Records. Opener ‘Cherry Coke’, the first song Big Baby wrote for this EP, sets the tone and introduces the soda and candy imagery of the title. Its indie pop sweetness is balanced with a lemon wedge of wistfulness, and the extra gear it finds after around a minute shows Big Baby are equally adept at doing sugar rush as they are syrupy nostalgia.
‘String of Pearls’ is another standout, a fun but semi-serious song about killing the long lonesome hours when a loved one is at work. “Sometimes I would get bored and do mundane tasks to pass the time,” Mislowsky describes. “I was untangling the strands of my string of pearls plant when the chorus just kind of fell out of my mouth.”
The EP closes on a breezy and nostalgic note with ‘Mid-June’, a bittersweet pop song that pines for a perfect early summer afternoon that is now consigned to the past. The song also has a fittingly crunchy finale as Big Baby flex their indie rock muscles one last time in a thundering last 15 seconds.
