Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Album Review: Snowglobe- Snowglobe

Snowglobe
S/T
*** out of *****

The newest release from the Memphis based band is a self-titled effort and anytime a group drops a self-titled release after putting out a few albums it acts as a sort of reboot. The 11 track effort is song focused, yet still wandering and a touch odd; all which makes for an engaging ride.

The band is made up of Brad Postlethwaite: Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, Saw, Kitchen Sink, Jeff Hulett: Drums, Vocals, Guitars, Luke White: Guitar, Vocals,  Tim Regan: Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals, Brandon Robertson: Bass, Nahshon Benford: Trumpet, Euphonium.

There can be an effortless feel to the proceedings and seeing how the players have been working together since High School that could be the reason for the easy rolling notes, which also happens to be the focus of the retro looking disk opener, "Easy". Harmonies and sounds blend and whirl together in an organic way, reminiscent of White Denim or Neutral Milk Hotel.

"Walking With Her" contains a Byrds jangle while other songs like "Big and Bright" and "Birthday" continues to recall the psychedelic pop with large swells builds and more of the great harmonies. The band can put too much special sauce into the tracks though as "One More Little Thing" settles into a groove but goes overboard with dramatic strings. Another downer is "We Have No Heat" which lyrically just stays in the title phrase so long that even the over driven guitars can't save it.

Better efforts are "Sid" which moves swiftly along but drops flourishes throughout or the keyboard driven ease of "We Were In Love". This song is an easy highlight of the disk, snapping with bubble gum pop in the vein of The Monkees; it is a vibrant three minute gem of a track. The harmonies return for the most tripped out tracks on the disk, the closing pair of "Little Hands (Universe Pt 1)" and "The Race, The Cure, And The Magic Machine (Universe Pt 2)" that meander around with spacey looseness.

Overall Snowglobe out on Super Sonic Sounds Records has retro warm appeal, but still adds new things to that familiar pop rock sound that is so rooted in the 60's.
__________________________________________________________________
Thanks to Kandice from Nine Mile Records/ Super Sonic Sounds Records for sending this our way. Support the band, buy the album and peep some video:


No comments:

Post a Comment