I’m a day late getting this up this week. Public health warning: don’t be a parent in your mid-30s and still try to drink like you’re in your 20s. Hangovers are bad, but hangovers combined with a whingey toddler are another level.
Anyway, this week’s album pick is the debut from Snõõper and there’s a quick-fire roundup of the rest of my favourite new releases.
Album of the week
Snõõper – Super Snõõper
Nashville band, Snõõper, were signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records after emerging as leading proponents of the ‘egg punk’ genre. For those unfamiliar, ‘egg punk’ is essentially punky songs about weird, stupid shit. On their debut album they demonstrate why they built that reputation. This album is stupid. And I’m mostly saying that as a good thing.
The album’s runtime is just 23 minutes, with all but one song clocking in under 2 minutes. It’s relentless and restless from the off, as the opening track mashes brief song snippets together with the sounds of radio signals and static. That leads into a 30 second song about bed bugs, before the third track gives us the first conventional song structure with verses, choruses and everything, albeit crammed into a 100 second dash. And the album pretty much continues on that trajectory.
They cut a furious pace, with an almost constant onslaught of pounding drums and rapid fire riffs. The vocals of Blair Tramel are urgent yet almost robotic, they seem to wrap around the music, like they’ve been improvised purely to meet the momentum of the jittery rhythms. But the aggression of the music is contrasted by the relative absurdity of the lyrical content, making it both a heavy and a light listen.
The frantic pace combined with the bizarre and seemingly random lyrical content almost give this a feel of a schizophrenic social media feed. You have your fitness influencers (Fitness), gambling ads (Powerball), weird nature (Bed Bugs, Fruit Fly), something educational (Microbe), and a bit of nostalgia (Unable). And that slice of nostalgia makes sense as Snõõper’s surrealistic art-punk feels like an update on the work of cult Californian new wavers, Suburban Lawns, who they cover on Unable.
Now, on the negative side, this album is stupid. There’s very little room for anything to breathe and the goofiness can wear a bit thin. Ultimately, songs that aren’t really about anything, don’t really leave you feeling much of anything. At some point it begins to feel a bit frivolous. Although, their most expansive effort is closer Running. At over 5 minutes it accounts for almost a quarter of the album. The signature drums, riffs and vocal hooks are still there but they’re all slowed down just a touch to maintain a driving chug which veers into a sort of whirling psychedelia. It’s like they sign off by saying “ah yeah, you realise we can do more if we want to”, a reminder that it’s worth coming back for more.
So, like a good old mindless social media scroll, this album might not leave a lasting impact on you, but it’ll certainly keep you entertained while you’re there.
Best tunes: Pod, Defect, Unable, Running
Tunes of the week
The Armed – Everything’s Glitter: Like a mash-up of Room On Fire-era Strokes with Hot Fuss-era Killers from the mysterious Detroit hardcore collective.
Waves of Dread – Motion: Apologies to my Twitter followers cos this is a recycled line I’ve already used on there, but this one’s a bit like if Nirvana went shoegaze. It actually sounds like Kurt Cobain trapped in there around 2:20.
HONEYMOAN – We’re on an Island, but it’s the UK: Dream pop with a bit more oomph. As if someone cheered up Beach House.
Big Thief – Vampire Empire: Big Thief are one of the biggest names in indie nowadays, but I’ve never really got them, they seem annoying. I mean look at the description for this song
“it’s about getting out of toxic internal patterns—leaving the empire of energy drains that obscure pure essence, learning about what healthy boundaries are, and finding the power to implement them for the possibility of giving and receiving (both inwardly and outwardly) unbroken and infinite Love”
Fuck off man.
Anyway, this song reminds me a bit of Alanis Morissette, I like it.
Daniel Meade – Your Madness Is My Medicine: A proper throwback boogie woogie piano jam.
Ralphie Choo & Mura Mass – MÁQUINA CULONA: Shape-shifting industrial pop infused with Latin rhythms.
LEFTI – To The Rhythm: Another soulful house banger from the Brooklyn producer on his reliably good Quincy Boy label.
Disclosure – Go The Distance: Once you get over the initial disappointment and accept they’ll probably never reach the heights of their debut, the new Disclosure album is pretty good. There’s no real standouts on it, it’s more a case of being consistently decent, but Go The Distance gives a taster of what you can expect.
Council Cut – Make Do: Another slice of catchy kitchen-sink poetry from the Stoke hip-hop Brit pop man.
Gabe ‘Nandez – Louis XIV: Smooth jazzy soul beats contrast with the New York rapper’s smoky vocals, which have him sounding a bit like a chilled out DMX.
You can check out previous weeks’ new music roundups at the Best New Music Weekly archive. And you can keep up with the latest updates by following No Frills Reviews on your chosen social media platform.
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