Snog

Beyond The Valley of the Proles (Metropolis)
by DJ Carrion

The best way to describe the newest release from Snog is this: Take all the spaghetti Western sounds from 1998’s Buy Me – I’ll Change Your Life and give it a shitload of steroids. Throughout Beyond The Valley of the Proles, you have an almost calm and serene David Thrusell singing over acoustic guitars backed by random electronics, bleeps, and harmonious strings.

While overall it’s a great album, “Fill My Hole” and “Welcome to Adelaide” are both so musically superb and diverse that you could almost imagine some elderly person listening to and enjoying it. Until lyrics like “friend, won’t you please fill my hole,” and “they’ve got judges too, they’d like to butt fuck you, but only if you’re under nine,” kick in. The reaction would be priceless (I’ve seen some of these reactions – I work in a record store). “The Master,” a definite standout, is a little ditty about Satan and sounds like it’s backed by The Bad Seeds (Murder Ballads-era) with a lot more whip to it.

I saw Snog live and they played “Justified Homicide” (which appears here), marking the beginning of their deeper venture into more guitar-oriented structures and harmonious organs. Thrusell closes the album with “Waiting,” which almost sounds like a Western hippie anthem.
(PO Box 54307 Philadelphia, PA 19105)