The Saxophones - 'Too Big for California'
‘Too Big For California’ is one big lyrical metaphor that tries to make sense of the chaos and absurdity of the world in 2025. The first single from The Saxophones’ latest album ‘Full Time Hobby’, it initially comes across as a softened, laconic song. A bed of smooth ambient jazz steadily comes into view, and with Alexi Erenkov’s calming baritone vocals, it’d be easy to read this as a happy piece, but this false sense of contentment belies a world of bereft despair at the heart of the song.
It’s a song which calls out the apathy of the world towards those suffering the most. Erenkov writes about the contradictory and disparate states people find themselves in living in California. There are people in multi-million dollar mansions, while thousands of homeless people sleep rough. There are people enjoying après-ski, raising a glass of wine to their day’s vacation, while the wildfires burn uncontrolled. Some people are more concerned about their car, than if their neighbour has enough to eat. Too Big For California presents this all-too-familiar duplicity of society in a hazy soundscape, somewhere between a nightmare and dream.
There’s something quietly horrifying about a song with such gentle melodic sensibilities containing lines like “The shanty towns are burning, still I’m doing fine” - The subject of the song showing a total lack of empathy for those worse off. Indeed, the remorse only seems to come when they are directly affected - “The vineyards are burning - now I’m quite concerned.” The lackadaisical attitude in these words is all the more striking when coupled with the pleasant instrumental backing.
The mid section lifts everything musically. The band truly arrive on the two-minute mark, with Alison Alderdice’s drums finally being given permission to come in, underneath a fusion-style synth solo from Richard Laws. It brings with it a spacey, super-cool retro 70’s vibe, which continues over the 2nd verse, and makes the lyrical ambivalence all the more prominent. Erenkov wryly observes - “At least you got a picture for your blog.”
Of course all of this is “Too Big For California,” which is the core meaning of the song. No matter who you are – Street-cleaner, tech bro, or political leader – This situation is greater than the personal world you inhabit. That the most powerful figures on the globe appear to be entirely unbothered by this is what drives the frustration in the song. That it is expressed through such sweet music, is the blade which cuts the deepest.
Words by Adam Davidson
