“Hard to be happy when the world is getting heavy.”
This line arrives during the refrain of the final song—“Big Doink”—but honestly, it summarizes the world’s need for Pet Symmetry’s latest album, Big Symmetry. Sure, it was born out of a different year’s tough times—namely 2021’s COVID pandemic and the interruption it inflicted upon touring—but feels like it was recorded yesterday because, well, we could all use an infectiously celebratory album about love right now.
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Such genuine positivity is new for the band. The more power pop-leaning side project from emo veterans Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It.), Marcus Nuccio (Ratboys), and Erik Czaja (Dowsing), Pet Symmetry has a long history of planting their witty tongues firmly in their clever cheeks, from their lyrics (“You’d make more sense if you were wrong”) to their album titles (Pets Hounds) to even their name. It always kind of felt like this band was the members’ chance to ditch the sincerity and emotion of their other projects and just have loud fun.
Until now… sorta. The loud fun is still there and, yes, they still carry a jokey naming convention across their fifth full-length release, but the songs themselves wear their hearts unabashedly on their sleeves. This is an album of open-hearted appreciation for the things they’re grateful for in life, be it their spouses (“Big Engagement”), vacations (“Big Island”), neighbor’s dog (“Big Barker”), deceased friends (“Big Steve”), and even a now-deceased tour van named Vanessa (“Big Mileage”). The change brings out the best in their writing, as the lyrics hit that sweet spot of relatable specificity; like you haven’t personally driven all over America in their tour van, but you’ve felt similarly about your own Vanessa. Even the album’s big declarative statements—like “Big Diamonds’” chorus “If it’s for me, then it’s for us / If it’s for us, then it’s enough”—come off more like one couple’s personal vows rather than, say, a love song’s trite refrain.
The songs also live up to the “Big” of their titles, with a capital “B.” The hooks are driving and instantly memorable, the choruses beg to be shouted along with, and the drums are big enough to be on a Springsteen album in 1984. The production makes every track sound epic enough to fill an arena, even the album’s lone slow-tempo burn of “Big Guilt Trip.” If the press release didn’t mention it was recorded at a remote cabin in Illinois, you’d swear this was the product of a big-name Los Angeles studio. And in a good way. Big looks good on these songs.
Can an entire album of over-the-top lovefests start to feel like a steady diet of only comfort food? Sure. Almost the whole album plays at 11, with little variation aside from the aforementioned (and moving) “Big Guilt Trip.” But do we also need comfort food in hard times? Hell yeah. Plus, the last song, “Big Doink,” offers the sobering context of how a simple, fun thing can be the small way to hang onto sanity in tough times.
It’s tough times all around these days, so I’m with Pet Symmetry in wanting a big reminder to be bigly grateful for big love.
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