Bringing Raw Emotion To Groovy Songwriting: Remi Wolf – ‘Big Ideas’ Review

Words: Benjamin Hacking

Following the release of her debut album ‘Juno’ in 2021, Remi Wolf’s rise to prominence has been undeniable, amassing over one billion streams and performing all over the world at festivals such as Coachella, or selling out tours and opening for artists such as Paramore and Olivia Rodrigo. Remi is now attempting to spring on from this incredible success with her new album ‘Big Ideas’, bringing new approaches to her already immense sound.

Where ‘Big Ideas’ is a slightly inconsistent album – it has both its highs and its lows, the highs are some of the best ive heard from Remi so far in her career. The pure wall of emotive noise Remi manages to create in tracks like Pitiful and Wave (my favourites of the album) while bringing back the brilliantly groovy songwriting that she has displayed thus far in her career is a true testament of her talent as a musician, especially when compared to some of the more stripped back emotive tracks in this album.

One of these more emotional tracks is the single ‘Motorcycle’ which is a great showcase of Remi’s soulful lyricism discussing the yearning that comes from romance and desire. Combined with the minimal edits in the song throughout the recording process (‘Motorcycle’ was mostly recorded in one take) the lyrics delve into these themes beautifully. While this album brings with it some incredible songs, there are still sections that fall short – some of the songs, as much as I hate this term, do feel a bit like album filler. There were times in the album where I was just waiting for the next track. I also thought that with all the emotionality that was brought to ‘Big Ideas’, that the closing song was a wasted opportunity – I really would have liked it to delve into that side of things more to close the album out.

However, as ive already mentioned ‘Big Ideas’ brings some of the best music I’ve heard from Remi so far. This album brings with it some brilliant new songs that absolutely could have been overshadowed by the four great singles prior to release. I can quite confidently say that as good as they are, my favourite moments of this album aren’t actually from the singles, but from the album release, which is lovely to see in this modern industry.