Album Review: Girlpool - Before the World Was Big

When The World Was Big, the debut album from lo-fi duo Girlpool, is one of those albums that welcomes you in, makes you feel happy and keeps you pleasantly engrossed right to the very end.

As the title suggests, many of the songs take you back to the time we were growing up, a time of innocence, realization and exploration. Simple in its delivery, Girlpool may offer the ultimate stripped back to basics approach, but it by no means detracts from the sincerity of this album. Maybe it’s down to the close friendship of Cleo Tucker (Guitar) and Harmony Tividad (Bass), maybe it’s the apparent intimacy of the lyrics, whatever it is, you can’t help but feel you have been made a very welcome guest into the life of others. It’s a place where they are happy to recollect, surmise, and open up.

I don’t feel there are any particular album highlights as such. But that’s not a criticism, this is an album that should be taken as a complete piece of work, each track a chapter to a bigger story.Ten short, but very sweet tracks, that not only let you into Girlpool’s world, but by the end of the album, succeed in making you feel a part of it.