Big Calm

1	The Sea 5:47
2	Shoulder Holster 4:04
3	Part of the Process 4:24
4	Blindfold 4:37
5	Let Me See 4:20
6	Bullet Proof 4:11
7	Over and Over 2:20
8	Friction 4:13
9	Diggin' a Watery Grave 1:34
10	Fear and Love 5:04
11	Big Calm 6:00
12	The Music That We Hear Bonus Track 3:49

Barnes & Noble

Morcheeba's 1996 debut Who Can You Trust? arrived at an opportune moment. Portishead and Tricky had just made the world safe and trendy for Brits favoring a deep, atmospheric sound and lissome female vocals. If anything, Morcheeba's Skye Edwards seemed to tweak the formula by sounding just a shade more soulful. On their second release, 1998's Big Calm, however, the group distances itself from the paranoia of trip-hop's leaders and from the oblique sound of their own debut. The aptly titled recording offers more guitars (though turntables still warble in the background of most tracks) and a voice of optimistism, but Morcheeba are anything but naïve. Songs like "Fear and Love," "Blindfold," and "Shoulder Holster," prove Edwards and brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey are keenly aware of the desperation and anxiety out there, but inside chez Morcheeba, they revel in an artfully laid back escape. Martin Johnson

All Music Guide

Realizing that trip-hop was a dead end, at least as far as hipness goes, Morcheeba expanded their sonic palette on their second album, Big Calm. Trip-hop and dance rhythms remain, but the trio has spent more time writing songs, crafting an album where pop, lounge, film soundtracks, reggae, jazz, and electronica all peacefully coexist. Consequently, Big Calm is a stylistic tour de force, evidence that Morcheeba have turned into a mature, sophisticated group with impeccable taste. Occasionally, the album can sound a little distant, as if the fusions and productions were more important than the actual songs, but the trio is so musically adept, and Skye Edwards' voice is so enchanting, that Big Calm become irresistible in its own way. Stephen Thomas Erlewine