Doin' Her Utmost to mix pop with feeling

The new single by The Big Believe 'Doin’ My Utmost' C/W 'Hundreds' is a writing collaboration between Amanda Thompson and Daniel Wylie (of Cosmic Rough Riders fame). The Big Believe though is essentially Amanda, who writes/co-writes and performs most of the material, when she’s not busy being a Necessary Animal that is. As The Big Believe, Amanda Thompson has carved out a distinct niche fusing pop electronica with an Indie sensibility and catchy but emotional vocals.

Single cover artwork by Peter Quinnell 

The 2020 album Juggernaut provided the perfect showcase for this fusion; the single from that album, 'Tania Was A Truth Teller', was an absolute corker.

Album cover artwork by Peter Quinnell

The new single has Necessary Animals’ collaborator Fritz Catlin (23 Skidoo) at the mixing desk, Marcus Sullivan on additional guitar, and Rufus Stone on bass and percussion. While Amanda would no doubt modestly deny that The Big Believe is essentially her, the new single is very much in a groove that she has established as her own. Her promotional material stresses ‘melody’ and ‘energy,’ and these are very much what 'Doin’ My Utmost' is about. 

It’s no surprise that she’s currently getting more airplay Stateside. When it comes to intelligent pop and rock, the US had long favoured broadcasting direct and upbeat songs over the Brits’ more typical knowing introspection. The Big Believe are more than just catchy though; they want to uplift with feeling, and this single is no exception to their musical game-plan. ‘Hundreds’ does the same thing, with just a little less bounce. The Big Believe could be the next big thing. You read it here first.

'Doin' My Utmost'/'Hundreds' can be purchased/listened to via this link.

A Man in a Purple Dress

Passion, anger, self-righteousness, humility, equivocation. It’s all in here. Unsurprisingly this late period Pete Townshend/Who song says more about the author than the subject. Its target is moralising prelates; its visual embodiment is a pope (written pre-Pope Francis). However 'A Man in a Purple Dress' is full of contempt for figures of high orthodoxy in any monotheistic context. More importantly the anger is timeless, focused, articulate; the older Daltrey delivers a vocal that’s emotionally intelligent, mannered and sincere. Townshend accompanies him on acoustic guitar. Nothing more, nothing less. The song is complete. 

Unplugged but wired, circa 2016 Photo © La Stampa

Townshend isn’t saying that for a man to be wearing a long purple tunic is inherently absurd, more that it compounds the inherent risibility of those presented as infallible, or at the very least those who would have us believe they’re wise, moral and well-informed when they preach. Of course Townshend knew when he handed down these lyrical judgments to Daltrey to try to embody, that he hadn’t been above dispensing moral and political lessons to his followers for a few decades either. Toward the end of the song, Townshend, via Daltrey, notes that he too dresses up for ‘grand awards’, and that at least those apparently embodying religious certainty aren’t weighed down by moral equivocation (or ‘astride the fence’). That comes with middle aged agnosticism, presumably. Listening to it today, 15 years on from when it was released, I get an immediacy and a power, a righteous rage that could rightfully be addressed to any public figure who tries to dispense moral authority from within the confines of morally compromised power structures. Take another bow, Pete.   

‘A Man in a Purple Dress’ is on The Who album ‘Endless Wire’ (2006)

A late period classic, released 2006. Cover artwork © Polydor/Universal