The Snare | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 2002 | |||
Label | Mute[1] | |||
Producer | Peacock Johnson | |||
Looper chronology | ||||
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The Snare is the third album by the Scottish band Looper, released in 2002.[2][3] Frontman Stuart David adopted the persona of Peacock Johnson.[4]
The album shares themes and characters with David's novel The Peacock Manifesto.[5] "This Evil Love" is about romantic obsession.[6] The music shifted from the dance styles of the first two albums to include downbeat and trip hop elements.[7]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
The Gazette | [9] |
Pitchfork | 6.1/10[10] |
Winnipeg Sun | [7] |
Pitchfork wrote: "Easy to dismiss, smirk at, or even hate on the fist listen, nine out of The Snare's ten tracks are grind-and-pause, semi-sultry pairings of exotic keyboard settings and mid-tech beats that exploit their refrains and come weirdly close to the patterns of 'risqué' after-dinner radio pop circa 1999-present."[10] Exclaim! determined that "as an isolated album it comes across as little more than sub-par art pop whose tunes are monotonous and whose lyrics are obtuse."[5] The Gazette considered it "a dark, brooding work which holds together well, but struggles to free itself from its own weight."[9]
The Sunday Herald deemed the album "10 menacing murder ballads, all characterised by ... dulcimer, baritone sax burps and tinkly music-box noises, backed by a Casio-keyboard approximation of the stuttering beats of modern R&B."[11] The Northern Echo called it "a black masterpiece."[12] The Philadelphia Daily News labeled it "a mysterious soundtrack of the mind with R&B, hip-hop and spaghetti western inflections."[13]
AllMusic wrote that "Looper drops their bright playfulness for a sophisticated, darker counterpart which uses jazz, R&B, and trip-hop as its foundation."[8]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Snare" | |
2. | "Sugarcane" | |
3. | "New York Snow" | |
4. | "Peacock Johnson" | |
5. | "Driving Myself Crazy" | |
6. | "Lover's Leap" | |
7. | "Good Girls" | |
8. | "She's a Knife" | |
9. | "This Evil Love" | |
10. | "Fucking Around" |