Spectreview: Big Red Machine – How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?

Released: August 27, 2021

Alternative
(Indie Folk)
(Singer-Songwriter)
(Electronic)

-RED-

For a guide to the review color rating system, click here.

That rating isn’t a joke (mostly) but I chuckle a little inside thinking about what “big red machine” means in the context of what I’m trying to do here. “Machine” pops out in particular, because the musicians that form the core of this duo – The National’s producer extraordinaire Aaron Dessner and longtime Bon Iver crooner Justin Vernon – have tasted the highest highs available in the industry. Dessner’s work with Taylor Swift last year resulted in one of the pop singer’s greatest triumphs, the quiescent folklore. Vernon’s camaraderie with Kanye West, meanwhile, accelerated his ascent into one of music’s most iconic voices. Together, they form a formidable dynamic on paper: two people still bearing the pedigree of the underground that have the power to produce some stunning (perhaps even esoteric) pop music. On paper.

In execution, I’m reminded a little of how people must have felt listening to Pearl Jam’s Riot Act when it was released over a decade after their breakthrough. I loved that record, but I didn’t have the context of the band’s near-unavoidable presence over the ‘90s weighing it down. And that’s what happens to me when listening to a Big Red Machine record; as much as some of this music shines in a surprising original light, both of these people have made far stronger music individually, music whose memory is hard to shake especially as Vernon’s falsetto loses its special quality as the world catches up.

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is one part strong original record and one part vehicle for whichever superstar wants to have a shot at earning some non-pop cred, and the inconsistency of that approach is apparent throughout. There are great moments, like the building rollout of the Naaem-featuring “Easy To Sabotage” and the wounded stuttering of “Mimi”. There are less great moments, most of which end up sucking the life out of their guests: “Phoenix’s” maudlin saloon-piano swing is not an ideal match for Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, similarly to how Anaïs Mitchell suffers in the slow, skittering “Latter Days.” Both form examples of tracks that feel like Bon Iver outtakes. Others, like Elliott Smith archetype “The Ghost of Cincinnati,” are owned by Dessner. The features also vary in importance; Taylor Swift kills both her lead vocal in “Renegade” and her back-up role in “Birch” (the latter of which is striking for its novelty) while without the clear credit it would be tough to make out Sharon Van Etten’s swoop or Kate Stables’ sharp tambour on their respective songs.

What it comes down to is that the record’s most alluring facet – its roster of high-profile names – forms its clearest weakness. There’s arguably too many voices, too many distractions pulling away from what is, essentially, a simple pairing of programming and pure melody. It’s hard to get a grasp on what could potentially make this album special, and instead a playground of able but unremarkable relics of the last decade forms. How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, overall, is an enjoyable listen boasting a handful of standout moments but nonetheless weighed down by a nagging sense of missed opportunity, surprisingly joyless for all its its pedestal-lowering endeavors.

Recommended for slotting into playlists.