Smerz Big city life
Smerz's Big city life refracts the city's glow into compact, unsettling vignettes that reward close attention more than instant gratification. Across six professional reviews, critics point to a record that balances nightclub minimalism with intimate lyricism, earning an 80.67/100 consensus score from reviewers who praise its theatrical restraint and lo-fi dread. Standout tracks repeatedly named by critics include “Big city life”, “Feisty”, “Roll the dice”, and “You got time and I got money”, each serving as a mood capsule of nightlife, memory, and yearning.
The critical consensus emphasizes fragmentation and emotional precision: songs arrive as gestures and snapshots rather than fully rounded pop statements, which many reviewers find deliberate and effective. Pitchfork and Clash flag the title track and “Roll the dice” as crystallizing the album's commuter-to-club arc, while The Quietus and The Line of Best Fit single out “Feisty” for its 90s synth swagger and skittering percussion. Under the Radar and Paste praise quieter moments like “You got time and I got money” and “Dreams” for turning sparse details into vivid feeling, even as a few cuts are called less committed.
Nuance matters in the reception: critics consistently admire the record's deadpan vocals, club minimalism, and the interplay of intimacy and alienation, yet some note that the sketchlike approach makes certain tracks feel ephemeral. Taken together, the reviews suggest Big city life is a striking, mood-driven collection that will satisfy listeners seeking the best songs on Big city life as immersive vignettes rather than conventional hits. Scroll down for full reviews and track-by-track impressions of where these standout moments land in Smerz's catalog.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Big city life
3 mentions
"Like any good fairytale, Big city life begins with Smerz’s version of an "I Want" song ."— Pitchfork
Roll the dice
3 mentions
"This is Smerz’s best party trick on Big city life : making music that reminds you of the club but is by no means club music."— Pitchfork
Feisty
5 mentions
"‘Feisty’ might be the rowdiest thing here"— The Quietus
Like any good fairytale, Big city life begins with Smerz’s version of an "I Want" song .
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Big city life
But I do
Roll the dice
What
Feisty
A thousand lies
Close
You got time and I got money
Big dreams
Street style
Imagine this
Dreams
Easy
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 6 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Smerz make a persuasive case on Big city life, where the best songs - “A thousand lies”, “Easy”, and “You’ve got time and I’ve got money” - distill their minimalism into intimate power. Issa Nasatir’s prose emphasizes how small gestures mutate into whole worlds, so when “A thousand lies” drops you into weightless limbo it feels like the album’s emotional center. The review celebrates “Easy” and “You’ve got time and I’ve got money” as tracks that transcend minimalist limits, balancing restraint with aching vulnerability. Even the critique of “Imagine this” sits within praise, underscoring that the duo mostly succeed at turning sparse elements into vivid feeling.
Key Points
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“A thousand lies” is the best track because it crystallizes the duo’s ability to make minimal gestures feel vast and weighty.
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The album’s core strength is transforming sparse, minimalist elements into intimate, transportive emotional moments.
Themes
Critic's Take
In her wry, image-rich way Hayley Scott argues that Smerz's Big city life rewards surrender rather than explanation, with tracks like “Feisty” standing out for its ’90s synth swagger and skittering percussion. She hears the album as a collection of gestures and fragments - half-decisions and hypnotic fades that make songs feel like fleeting, vivid snapshots. The best songs on Big city life, especially “Feisty”, work because they build like feelings: layered, ambiguous and emotionally precise, insisting you dance through the fuzzy edges. Scott frames the record as anti-pop sketchwork, where memorable moments arrive suddenly and then slip away, which is exactly why listeners searching for the best tracks on Big city life will keep returning to those bright, transient moments.
Key Points
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The best song, “Feisty”, is the album's most immediate and rowdy moment, with ’90s-style synths and vivid vocal narration.
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The album's core strength is its fragmentary, hypnotic sense of atmosphere that treats songs as emotionally precise sketches rather than conventional pop structures.
Themes
Critic's Take
With an exacting gaze and arched eyebrow, Smerz's Big city life finds its best songs in the title track and the smouldering “You got time and I got money”, which pair deadpan wit with dizzy desire. The review luxuriates in how “Big city life” opens like an experimental ’80s musical, and how “You got time and I got money” is "dizzy with desire from the jump", making these the standout moments. Other highlights like “Close” and “Feisty” simmer with tension and empowerment, folding cabaret drama into sharp electro beats. Overall the critic pins the album's power to its theatrical flair balanced by coarse truths, so readers searching for the best tracks on Big city life should start with those songs above.
Key Points
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The title track's experimental ’80s-musical opening and deadpan delivery make it the album's most striking moment.
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The album's core strengths are theatrical flair, sharp wit, and a persistent mix of glamour and raw loneliness.
Themes
Critic's Take
Smerz head straight to the party on Big city life, and the best songs - particularly “Feisty” and “Roll the dice” - capture that electric, uneasy first-night-out feeling with deadpan charm. The reviewer leans on the album's knack for making music about the club rather than in it, praising how “Feisty” acts as the beguiling, wonderful centerpiece while “Roll the dice” pairs jabby piano with a surprising peppiness. Slower cuts like “You got time and I got money” and “Imagine this” are highlighted as revealing, sincere counterpoints that deepen why these are the best tracks on Big city life. Overall, the record balances anthemic swagger and downtempo revelation, which is why listeners asking "best tracks on Big city life" should start with those standouts.
Key Points
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“Feisty” is the best song because it acts as the album’s beguiling, wonderfully deadpanned centerpiece.
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The album’s core strengths are its vivid club-night atmosphere and the revealing downtempo tracks that soften and complicate the party veneer.
Themes
Critic's Take
Smerz’s Big city life finds its clearest moments in the opener “Big city life” and in the late-album sweep of “Dreams”; those two tracks crystallize how memory and nightlife pulse through the record. The review’s voice praises the trip-hop grind of “Big city life” and the gauzy synth symphony of “Dreams” as the album’s high points, while noting quieter tracks like “Close” and “Imagine this” feel less committed. Standalone singles such as “A thousand lies” and the deadpan pop-rap of “Feisty” are singled out for their immediacy and effective worldbuilding. Overall, the record’s strengths are its evocative moments and conceptual cohesion rather than uniform thrills across every song.
Key Points
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The opener "Big city life" best distills the album’s trip-hop destabilization and thematic core.
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The album’s core strengths are evocative, cinematic moments and a cohesive concept of urban memory and nightlife.
Themes
Critic's Take
In a voice both elated and rueful, Smerz’s Big city life feels like a mixtape for the long train into the city and the delirious cab home, and the review makes clear the best songs - the title track and “Roll the dice” - crystallize that feeling. The title track is an "I Want" song rendered with Motzfeldt’s cool anhedonia, while “Roll the dice” is the record’s party trick, slipping between slinky piano and chopped techno to reach the hopeful wallflower. Elsewhere “A thousand lies” registers as a quiet collapse of certainty, underlining how time stretches and compresses across the album. Read together, these tracks show why Big city life is romantic, itchily excitable, and distinctively Smerz.
Key Points
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The best song, “Roll the dice”, is the album’s deft party trick: slinky piano and chopped techno reach the hopeful wallflower.
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The album excels at romantic, nocturnal moods, stretching and compressing time to evoke coming-of-age nights out.