Only Bricks – Big Girl Shoes (Spotify)
“Adrenaline and a wave of admiration cross the threshold here. The arrangement on track -Big Girl Shoes- successfully combines the power and melody in the vocal line, and high-quality vocals create the right atmosphere.”
“Адреналин и волна восхищения переступят порог вашего плейлиста. Аранжировке -Big Girl Shoes- удачно сочетает в себе энергию и мелодичность в вокальной линии, а качественные вокальные партии создают нужную атмосферу. ”
-Nagamag.com
A male colleague watched Only Bricks lead vocalist and songwriter Anne DiGiovanni get on an elevator wearing high heels and said “Oh, are you wearing your big girl shoes today?” She felt humiliated, belittled, and unsure - but just laughed it off.
It took several years and much inner reflection before the song “Big Girl Shoes” was born out of that moment in a writing session with the band’s guitarist and songwriter Joseph Lewczak and co-writer Samantha Margret. According to Anne, “‘Big girl shoes’ are a metaphor for the double bind of needing to look feminine but not too sexy, an added weight women carry at work on top of their normal job responsibilities.
Produced by long time collaborator Cameron Stymeist, the pair wanted the recording to reflect women’s power without sounding angry - a song with a pop surface and a punk soul. “We hope that came through in the production,” said Joseph. “We added guitar feedback and cable noise in the breakdown to give it a bit of a live, in-your-face feel, and the dirty 808s throughout added a disturbing quality.”
The song celebrates the dying breaths of the patriarchy with its “Glass falling from the ceiling cuts sharp on its way down” lyric, as slow progress continues to be made for women’s equality.
Reviewed by Nagamag on April 20, 2021