Chapter 1: The Great Escape

You can run but you can’t hide. Our story begins as Vince Staples climbs out the bucket of crabs, but how’s the view up there Vince?

Tapping The Glass: Big Fish Theory Album Analysis — Crabs In a Bucket

By Maymay Harwood and Michael Woller

Welcome to the first analysis for the album — Big Fish Theory. If you’re enjoying this, please leave a clap and comment!

Eager as we are to dive headfirst into the album, we first need to deconstruct the instrumentals, as it introduces the realm of sound that Big Fish Theory is set in. These are the very first strokes of the grand canvas that is to be the album, a technique of crafting sonic landscapes used by a multitude of artists from the 20th century avant-garde movement, and not intended to be taken lightly.

Our sonicscape begins with a gliding bass, enveloped by a whistling wind, a stroke that paints a vast and spacious auditory landscape. Suddenly, a lone synth pierces through our vast soundscape, opening the portal to another musical dimension through its abrupt increase in the composition’s chromatic and dynamic range. What was once thought…