Snocaps
S/T
**** out of *****
The twin sisters, Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and Allison Crutchfield (Swearin') partnered up with MJ Lenderman and Brad Cook to form Snocaps. The high profile coming together of artists dropped their self-titled debut full length without any fanfare on Anti records this past Halloween. The results are a catchy mix of indie rock and alt 90's throwback.
All involved here push past their more Americana tendencies to deliver an effort that would have been at home in the Buzz Bin during the 90's MTV heyday. Reminiscent of The Breeders more than anyone, the quartet layer sounds and singing throughout the breezy sounding debut.
The opening "Coast" starts basic before swelling with grunge adjacent energy as Lenderman's guitar slices through and Katie's vocals soar, setting an impressive tone to kick things off. The strong songs keep flowing after that. Cook's bass leads "Heathcliff" as the tune shows off excellent vocal harmonies in front of catchy, hip swaying indie rock while the easy dream pop like shimmering sounds float in front of breakup lyrics and angsty vocals on the excellent "Wasteland".
"Brand New City" kicks in some mid career Neil Young love before "Hide" constructs layers of guitars in Pixies b-side like fashion. Both "Cherry Hard Candy", an upbeat indie rocking single that uses excellent drumming from Allison and the twinkling bright "Avalanche" would have been singles back in the day. Two of the best tunes here are the strong strumming "Doom" which leads to a dramatic reckoning with finality in glorious fashion and the quick short burst of goodness with poppy dance ready beats, ringing guitars and moving bass of "Over Our Heads".
For a group of players who made their names in the Americana field, the only dip into those waters is the acoustic based "Angel Wings", but Snocaps feel more at home with rock touches. The slow building "I Don't Want To" warbles with alt-rock energy before "You In Rehab" recalls The Replacements with catchy midwestern marching rock power.
Perhaps it is the zero hyped surprise release, or the lower stakes of all artists already being well established or just simply the odd, tagged on, coming-full-circle closer "Coast II", but when the debut wraps up for Snocaps there is a fresh sense of joy. The palpable feeling of four friends getting together to just make music is what in the end is the best part of Snocaps debut.
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