#thesnuts

The Snuts - W.L. (Review):

I stumbled upon The Snuts thanks to them sharing the same album release week as Demi Lovato’s ‘Dancing With The Devil…The Art Of Starting Over’. The two were competing for the top spot on the UK albums chart and the former took the spot in the end with their debut album ‘W.L.’. I then decided to give their album a listen and I was won over by the body of work.

The band are classified under the Indie rock genre and the debut record features diversity in terms of both sound and topic. There are the upbeat, head rocking tracks like ‘Always’, ‘Juan Belmonte’, ‘All Your Friends’ & ‘Don’t Forget It (Punk)’ that will immediately get you rocking out to them. Then there are the more groovy tracks like ‘Maybe California’ & ‘Coffee & Cigarettes’ that have this throwback 80’s vibe to them. ‘Boardwalk’ & ‘Elephants’ provide the album with its more moodier moments. The former leaves you lost in a state of euphoria, whilst the latter is put forward with quite some attitude that has you jumping to the chorus. ‘Boardwalk’ is one of the highlights on the album and the way it builds as it goes on elevates the feel of the track in such a magical way. You get completely encapsulated by the track.

The band capture a sense of who they are and where they come from on the record which is most apparent on tracks like ‘Glasgow’ or ‘4 Baillie Street’. More prominently on the former which is about the draw their hometown has on them, it makes you miss and long for Glasgow as if it were your hometown as well. The latter also holds a sense of their hometown and of them as well. It in a way feels like a song about a journey through life and how you look over your past memories and sometimes yarn about being at a certain age or place again.

They also empower and commemorate others on the album. With ‘Somebody Loves You’ being a track with hopes to lift you up, with knowing that you are loved. Then ‘Sing For Your Supper’ commemorates someone who’s passed away, however they don’t want to let go of the person. The vast feeling track ‘No Place I’d Rather Go’ is about wanting to always stay in the presence of this person you love. It provides the album with such a grand moment, the bridge features them singing ‘lalalalalaa..’, which gives you this euphoric feel. It is also threaded throughout the track in the background. You get completely lost in the songs beauty.

The deluxe version features four more tracks than the standard and they seem to be more emotional tracks that are rather sombre and mellow feeling. The album sounds like the perfect record to be played in a live setting and one that you would surely enjoy and get immersed in as someone in the crowd.