BoomSnake – Give & Take
This is another U.S. album from last year that has only filtered to me this year from a kindly (and very groovy) plugging company. Boom Snake is one or two guys making dust covered Pop, filtering classic ‘tunesmith’ through a slightly bleak psyche. Starting with the dreamy fragility of ‘Busy’ (a “take time to smell the flowers” type plea), second track ‘Be Where How’ (points for the title there) is up-beat, pushing to an almost ecstatic conclusion. The Raspberries and Harry Nilsson are pointers.
‘Sticks Stones & Animal Bones’ wouldn’t be out of place on an album by The Finns, gorgeous double tracked harmonies across a surprisingly rhythmic track. By now we know we are in timeless Pop territory, with an assured and able guide in Boom Snake. ‘My Pretend Friends’ is a sound collage interlude that sort of clears the pallet before ‘Honey’ goes back to basics – acoustic guitar and ghostly vocals promising eternal love to someone (though the possibility is the affection is one sided). In Da Ground faux beat boxes in the mildest manner behind a melodic vocal Radiohead wouldn’t turn their nose up at. ‘Excuses’ (Ghost Toast) is Jazz Guitar, brushes and the ethereal vocal the title might suggest, again Radiohead wouldn’t be overstating it – probably this conclusion is the most likely to bring a wider audience.