music review

SNOG ::: "Buy me, I'll change your life"

electronica - industrial

This is Snog's third album and for me the best one. It's great to hear Snog progress into new musical territories. It's by far the mellowest and grandest Snog release too - you won't find any noisy boom-tss-boom-tss tracks here - which is a great thing - they did that on "Dear Valued Customer".

I can imagine that this release might disappoint some "industrial" fans - the kiddies who want to hear something loud and angsty to upset their mommies with. But stuff that crowd. In fact, when considering some of the childish rubbish that is categorised as "industrial" these days, it would be a grave insult to Snog to describe their music on this album as "industrial". The musical influences here range from trip-hop beats to cruisy lounge, the pronounced influence of cheesey spaghetti western soundtrack themes (`60s reverby slide guitars etc.) combined with David Thrussell's gravelly voice and masterful electronics. What's more, this is also the most sing-along-able Snog album - the emergence of melody in several tracks which also feature very effective female vocal accompaniments is a pleasant surprise.

This is also the most humorous Snog album: Mr. Thrussell's cynical wit has reached new heights - or should that be lows? It certainly fixes a grin on my face. If I began to quote some of the lyrics here I wouldn't know where to stop - there's so many good ones. Although I do consider the lyrics in "this is capitalism" to be grossly simplistic, which is hard to avoid in a pop-song. Actually, to be honest, I think the comments on "capitalism" are a tad wrong. The song should be called "this is fascism" or this is "state totalitariansim". For laissez faire capitalism (free enterprise) and fascism (state capitalism) are quite different things.

EYE have to admit to being extremely jealous of the awesome sound quality Snog achieve. My statist decree after listening to this CD is "Buy it!"

Any half-decent record store.www.webweaver.com.au/imcc/