REVIEW: Dinosaur Pile-Up - I've Felt Better

Dinosaur Pile-Up’s newest album I’ve Felt Better is a candid look into Matt Bigland's journey through his ulcerative colitis diagnosis, weaved with the highs of finding his wife to the lows of the loneliness that taking immunosuppressants during COVID and the years afterwards had. I’ve Felt Better has simple-yet-raw lyricism which meets a pseudo-chipper 90s rock soundscape to create what sounds like The Front Bottoms meets Take Off your Pants and Jacket-era Blink-182. 

The main hook of I’ve Felt Better is the journey of Bigland’s struggles with ulcerative colitis, a condition that began to surface during the tour run of their last album but was ignored until the pandemic, when the symptoms became unignorable, and the immunosuppressants Bigland was put on as a result added absolute isolation to the lockdowns that turned many into islands. This health journey is the foundation of I’ve Felt Better; the title (and title track) being named after the default dismissive response when asked about his quality of life; or the simply-put lyrics of tracks including ‘Unfamiliar’ - “Oh lord/sometimes I wish I could change/feel self assured” - and the list of insults towards himself in closing track ‘I Don't Love Nothing and Nothing Loves Me’. 

In particular, this can be seen on track four, ‘Sick of Being Down.’ “I’m sick of the pressure/I’m sick of not being better” embodies the feeling of stopping when the momentum is building and not being able to start again, while later on in the track the double entendre of being high yet down due to the high doses of morphine and steroids while managing the symptoms medically - such as the hook “Well I’m high/because I’m high/but I’m sick of being down”. This style of lyricism adds rawness to the project because of its conversational tone; it feels as if Bigland is on the phone finally letting his friends know how he’s really doing.  

On the topic of rawness, the theme of isolation runs deep throughout ‘I’ve Felt Better’, fuelled by the strict quarantine imposed on Bigland as a result of the immunosuppressant medication. This is embodied particularly in final two tracks ‘Unfamiliar’ and ‘I Don’t Love Nothing and Nothing Loves Me’; the former has Bigland discussing wanting to get away and compounded boredom on the backdrop of not being able to recognise his body anymore, while the latter on how the isolation created persistent loneliness and feelings of nothingness. The choice to close on this track, which is slower-paced and more traditionally sad in its soundscape, feels like a reminder that this is still an active issue in Bigland’s life; despite coming out the other side of the hospital stays and finding remedies that work for him, the spectre of flare ups and the emotional consequences persist.   

Nevertheless, there is a string of optimism threaded through the project in the form of the songs about Bigland’s wife. These tell the story of their long distance love story; ‘Punk Kiss’ about the yearning after they had been able to see each other over the pandemic; big you and me covering the daydreams of their being back together; and ‘Quasimodo Lemonheart’ being a wife-worshipping anthem about feeling your other half is the better one. The smattering of these songs throughout the project offers a light at the end of the tunnel for the project, are sweet in their delivery and have that nostalgic 00s rock feel in their pining. 

Sonically, I’ve Felt Better is 00s Kerrang distilled into an album. From the structure of swinging power chords into picked guitar melodies that make up the majority of the song structures, to the moods of each track running from the pining love songs covered in the last paragraph to the toxically charged ‘Love’s the Worst’ - an angst-filled breakup anthem about throwing your exes stuff out, before they see you in the night while dating someone else - to emotive introspection about the mental consequences of Bigland’s health journey. Each track is comforting in this nostalgia and all are well executed, though the power-chord-to-plucked-melody structure does become samey by the closing tracks of I’ve Felt Better, which makes them hard to appreciate on a first listen and may impact the overall album’s relistenability. 

I’ve Felt Better is an impactful project, balancing its raw delivery and high energy soundscapes to craft an incomplete journey of physical healing and introspective revelations. These tracks are a warm hug to those mourning the death of Kerrang! Radio, and though the repetitive structure may cause the album to lessen its impact somewhat on repeat listens, there’s a ‘made to perform’ edge to some of these tracks that excites us for Dinosaur Pile-Up’s tour next month. 

Score: 8/10

I’ve Felt Better will be released on August 22nd 2025 via Mascot Records.

Words: Julia Brunton

Photos: Dinosaur Pile-Up