Snowglobe
Little More Lived In
(Makeshift Music)
Snowglobe’s last album, 2006’s Oxytocin, throbbed and pulsed like a band on the verge of mainstream success or at least widespread indie credibility. No band should ever go four years between albums but for a band on the verge like Snowglobe, it seemed particularly peculiar.
Thus, any fan had the right to expect a lot from Little More Lived In, especially since this Memphis, TN-based sextet already had quite a large and ambitious sound. What we get in return is something neither here nor there. Snowglobe continue to have a tremendous grasp on hooky melodies. However, they rarely exploit these hooks to full capacity. Little More Lived In is loaded with songs that take awhile to grow and then fade out too quickly. For every fully realized song, the album has two or so that are far less developed. Not poor. Rather, it is almost as if Snowglobe set out to create an album mostly of song sketches (not unlike their 2008 b-side collection Me and You).
Snowglobe’s two biggest strengths are a sense of band dynamics and an appreciation of song arrangement. However, on Little More Lived In, these goals often fail to coalesce. On the best songs, such as the gradually climaxing Beach Boys-esque “Testosterone,” Brad Postlethwaite and the guys play the song’s peaks and valleys expertly. The track begins with simple acoustic guitar and keyboard interplay. As more instruments enter, the tension builds for a moment and then dissipates. By the time the track finally reaches its apex, it feels well earned and thus triumphant. Likewise, the next track “Nothing” has a solid bassline, made more complete with a cello accompaniment. Postelwaite’s falsetto lends emotional heft despite angsty lyrics like “nothing I can do that’s good enough for you.”
Yet these aforementioned successes aside, much of Snowglobe’s sound this time out is incomplete. Whether it’s playing it safe on '90s rock-like tracks like “Kayak Rapid” or on numerous songs that fail to reach any true resolution, Snowglobe spend much of the album trying to find their focus. Despite a strong start on the traveling circus bounce of “Space Song,” Snowglobe too often trade tone for songwriting. Even songs with catchy melodies, such as “Teenage Queen,” are hampered by inertia. Snowglobe spend so much time here honing their evocative intros/outros that they often forget they owe us a song in between.
None of this is too say that Little More Lived In is a worthless album. When Snowglobe are on, they are positively mesmerizing. From the uncannily Neil Young-sounding harmonica of “Dad” to the layered loss of boyhood anthem “Get It On,” Little More Lived In has its moments. Nonetheless, an overall lack of strategic sequencing makes one wonder whether these guys actually wanted to make a coherent album, perhaps proving that not only double albums are worthy of musical editors.
|
|
