Big Special - O'Joy

Following the release of recent singles “SLUGLIFE”, “PLAINTIVE NATIVE” and “DRAGGED UP A HILL (and thrown down the other side)”, BIG SPECIAL today announce their new EP, O’JOY!, out 5 June 2026 via SO Recordings. 

Comprised of vocalist Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney, BIG SPECIAL describe O’JOY! as a companion piece to the work that has defined their rapid rise in recent years.

Speaking about the EP, the band said: “We’ve moved real fast these last few years.
Our first album was a long, drawn-out process of contextualising 30 years of experience into a piece of work that represents us, the time we occupy, and the history that led us here.

Our second album was a spur-of-the-moment reflection on how our lives were changing, written performed and put together in a moment between all the other moments of great change, a piece of work like a fence post in a time of our lives and this time in life where we stand as individuals and in a history of working class stock.

This new record is made of all the fallen parts of our first two albums.

We picked them up and took them back to the studio to rework and play with them to make them into their own piece of work that reflects upon what we have done so far. The songs that didn’t fit in the right place at the right time. Including songs that, at the time, might’ve made the albums too long and lean too far into a darker tone, where we wanted to keep the balance of an emotional journey, like watching a movie with your eyes closed.

Tracklist
1. **
2. Plaintive Native
3. Only Free When Sleeping
4. Lazarus
5. The Wake
6. Family Bones
7. Garden of Fools
8. Sluglife
9. Dragged Up a Hill (and thrown down the other side)
10. Hotel

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