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So
the world situation is not looking so good at the moment. Honestly
though, when has it ever? The Pax Romana probably wasn’t
as great as noted in dusty history books, and soon enough (a
few hundred years is nothing between friends) were plagues,
world wars, and so on. But let’s not throw in the towel
and moan into our teacups just yet. That would be too easy,
and life is anything but that.
English duo Snowblind
have had their own share of trouble. Granted their problems
are less urgent on a global scale, but all problems seem the
end of the world when in the middle of them. The band’s
first single, “Cut”, was released on Heavenly back
in early 2001. After the big record company shake-up the recorded
album was declared as officially unreleased and the band dropped.
In June this year the band returned with a second single “Easy
Girl”. The album The Falls saw the light of day
shortly afterwards and freed itself from a doom of backroom
bootlegs (now on label Independiente).
The two singles are coulda-been hits if the world were right
and just. They are songs that one wants to hear blaring from
the shop windows in the city during a summer afternoon instead
of some soulless retread of a wrinkled man’s acid trip
in 1965. “Cut” begins with consoling words in singer
Jane Murphy’s world weary voice: “I know the violent
times are hard”. Horn and string arrangements build to
the songs’ chorus. One review described the sound as Bacharachian,
due to the presence of arrangements one must assume. One could
also say Smiths-like for the jangly guitars. Or Birdie with
bite—both bands mine the same 60s sunshine pop influences.
Take the difference and you’re almost there. “Easy
Girl” starts off the album and seems to know its fate from
the first line: “you could have been a number one”.
The rest of the album tracks pass along in the same manner of
summery pop assuming you don’t mind a few dark clouds in
the sky. Until, that is, “Message for ‘Glo”.
Beginning with the sound of rain that song turns into a morose
piano piece until Jane and the band snap back in and her vocals
ring out with a certain urgency to “stop taking it easy”.
There are battles to fight, and the world is not a pretty place.
But don’t give up just yet.
| Matthew
Patrick, October 2002 |
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