A Great Big World, 'Is There Anybody Out There?'

By: David Savage

A Great Big World has come a long way since the release of the 2011 album, This is the New Year. The band was first regarded as Ian Axel, which also consisted of Chad Vaccarino, a friend of Ian’s from NYU. When the band changed their name to A Great Big World (from the song “Cheer Up!”), they had to use crowd-sourcing website, Kickstarter, to record their Self-Titled EP. After their song “Say Something” was featured on So You Think You Can Dance, Christina Aguilera showed interest in the song and rerecorded the track with Ian and Chad. After receiving wide-spread acclaim, the band is has released their album, Is There Anybody Out There?, off of Epic records.

Is There Anybody Out There? features a mostly familiar tracks to longtime followers of the band, such as “Already Home” (previously recorded as “Home”) and “This is the New Year”, the title track off Ian Axel’s first record. It’s such a relieving change of pace when a pop band actually relies heavily on guitar, drums, and piano, rather than electronic instruments. The record features some emotional heartfelt tracks; like “Say Something” and “Already Home”, but the most beautiful part of this band is how fun and boisterous the rest of the record is (with hilarious songs like “Everyone is Gay”). They have a reputation for being such a fun and joyous group, and it absolutely shines through their music. Is There Anybody Out There? is such a good clean record with a lot of positive vibes, that being said, I applaud the success of A Great Big World.

Favorite Tracks: “Rockstar”, “Already Home”, and “This is the New Year”