10th Anniversary Repress on Transparent Orange Vinyl
A Waxx Lyrical all-timer, Big Scary’s Not Art is one of those rare records that feels deeply considered without ever disappearing up its own clever backside. Warm, strange, soulful and quietly ambitious, the Melbourne duo’s second album wrestles with creativity itself: the pressure of being labelled “artists”, the search for meaning, and the blurry line between inspiration and imitation. Heavy stuff, sure. But somehow it still grooves.
Written and recorded largely on their own terms, Tom Iansek and Jo Syme traded studio polish for freedom, letting songs evolve slowly over nine months between touring, travel, and everyday life. The result is an album that drifts effortlessly between alt-pop, hip-hop textures, soft-focus indie rock and late-night soul, while still sounding unmistakably like Big Scary. Tracks like ‘Luck Now’, ‘Harmony Sometimes’ and the devastatingly beautiful ‘Twin Rivers’ pulse with emotional honesty and restless curiosity.
Mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Tom Elmhirst at Electric Lady Studios, Not Art balances intimacy with widescreen ambition. You can hear echoes of Joy Division, Phil Collins and The Smiths floating through the edges, but the record never feels derivative. Instead, it plays like two musicians pulling pieces from everywhere and building something deeply human from the rubble.
A genuine modern Australian classic. Quietly heartbreaking. Endlessly rewarding. The kind of album that reveals new corners of itself at 1am with headphones on and the lights off.
TRACKS:
- Hello, My Name Is
- Luck Now
- Harmony Sometimes
- Belgian Blues
- Phil Collins
- Twin Rivers
- Invest
- Lay Me Down
- Why Hip Hop Sucks in '13
- Long Worry
- Final Thoughts, With Tom and Jo
){kind=link}