Peter McPoland Reinvents Familiar Sounds on "Big Lucky"
Written by Ev Fuss
American singer-songwriter Peter McPoland has released his newest album, Big Lucky, and with it, he is bringing forward an elevated version of the sound that marked the beginning of his career. Peter's early work was always reminiscent of a folk sound. His first ‘big’ single, “Romeo & Juliet,” exemplifies this, with its softer and familiar acoustic sound. Peter strayed away from the sound he was so familiar with, the album Piggy, which was harsher in both lyrics and instrumentation, exemplifying a more electronic, modern rock sound. This album brought him a new surge of popularity as the single “Digital Silence” went viral on platforms like TikTok. However, Peter was always adamant that this wasn’t the sound that truly represented him. He has spoken about how the process of writing Piggy was difficult for him, yet it was also a necessary step, as he was in a place where he was rejecting the sounds that he had grown up loving. With Big Lucky, Peter returns to his origins, creating an album that differs from his previous while elevating these folk elements in a way that is true to himself.
As a massive Piggy fan myself, it’s hard to cope with the fact that we may never get music like that again from Peter. I’m all for putting out music that you are more proud and comfortable with, but I think he did do really well with that genre, and I do think that there was still so much emotion behind each song on that album. That being said, I was at first put off a bit by Big Lucky. The first few tracks, while very interesting instrumentally, have pretty random lyrics, even if you attempt to look past them to find deeper meaning. Peter has used symbolism in the past with songs, but in these tracks, it really feels like reaching for something that may not even be there. In the fourth track, “I Love The Animals,” Peter sings, “Can I get the T-shirt with the claw on the front? / Or the necklace with the shark tooth from a megalodon? / Yes, I am good for the charge I got so much from my Mom / But when I empty out my pockets, it's just lint and crumbs.” If you try to search for a deeper meaning, you might find something along the lines of not using the privileges we are given in life, but as I mentioned before, that feels like it could be a bit of a reach. The tracks are silly and fun, but for me, the intrigue in Peter's music comes from the symbolic stories he tells in his songs. While these songs are fun and a bit silly, there isn’t much going on deeper within the tracks.
There are certainly some exceptions to this point, with tracks later on the album and two that also happen to be my personal favorites, “Last Looks” and “The Center of the Universe.” The first of these touches on feelings of uncertainty and longing to be cared for and understood. Peter sings, “If for a hundred years, I'm just a shell of who I was / Come back to me, or recall, "He was the best as he is now" / If it comes to eat me up, won't you make it spit me out?” In this, he touches on feelings of being seen for the changes you’ve gone through as a person, and the desperation to have someone who will pull you out of the darkness so that you don’t get swallowed whole by it. “The Center of the Universe” can be interpreted as expressing the difficulties of having someone be the central part of your life, even if you care for them deeply. The second verse “You try screaming, but it don't come out / Start counting down the breath in my lungs / I take a big one, two in deep / I try looking for the starting gun / And I find it pointing right at me” could describe both feeling trapped in a relationship and also feelings of being trapped within one's own consciousness.
The album overall has some hits, but I’m not sure if the project as a whole landed very well for me. I fully appreciate Peter taking his old sound and amping up the folk aspects in an almost funky manner, but it’s such a jump from his past two albums that it feels almost lesser than. The production itself was incredible, and Peter always does a fantastic job with his albums, so technically, it was great.
Peter will be going on tour following the album; dates can be found on his website. You can stream Big Lucky now wherever you get your music.
