Album Reviews: Snõõper, Geese, Cate Le Bon, Bey Your Own Pet

Snõõper – Worldwide
Nashville, TN

Throwing muck against an already dirty and fiery set of guitars, Snõõper makes a sonic wallop on their latest album. Fast and sharp, while also exceptionally fat in tone, this is kaleidoscopic skate punk at its most heady and brisk. Running their riffs like a Looney Tunes-esque drill, “Worldwide” is a dense, chaotic and texturally stimulating track that is constantly buzzing and shrieking on one end or the other, resulting in a glorious flurry of sonic fireworks. “Guard Dog” strips away a few layers of tar, making for a murkier neon shredder, that feels between skater punk and a vintage video game soundtrack. The grime is dialed up on the grimy and sand-riddled tones of “Star 6 9”, where they find the perfect middle ground between the pop and the frantic heavy riffing. “Pom Pom” goes bite-sized, upping the ante on all the intense production choices and mud to create this kind taster track that tells you everything about the record.

Be Your Own Pet – What A B*tch (Single)
Nashville, TN

Returning to their denser and more blown-out tones, Be Your Own Pet is roaring on their latest single. While ramping up the tempo, they swap the breakneck pace of their early work for a fuzzier and grinding tone, resulting in something more burning than stabbing in sound. Singer Jemina Pearl is in fighting form, riding the wave the band keeps churning like it’s a primal manifestation of her own rage, as she machetes through all the false labels with vigor. Rather than going for flair, the track is about that raw anger, and building that one burning point to let its noise cut like a katana. As Pearl and the boys expand the sound and harmonies deeper across the track, the song becomes a race to the bottom, with a blistering yet tight skip into the ending.

Cate Le Bon – Michelangelo Dying
Penboyr, Wales

Though she’s always pushed the frontiers of art-pop in her work, Cate Le Bon never misses in finding a holistic approach to her sound. While she crafts an album that is certainly slow and almost too meditative at times, the glowing charm and tonal beauty it creates will have her fans transported once again to new frontiers, perhaps just less excitedly in places. “Mother of Riches” has one of the most gloriously shimmering sounds of the record, as sax, wooden synths and a growling bit of electronica let’s Le Bon dance in the aquatic ether of the record. While intensely slow, the dramatic melodies of “Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)?” evokes a soul-era Bowie energy, resulting in something more narratively rich and evolving. The watery qualities of “About Time” lulls you in, like an Enya song pulled from the world of avant-garde, geometric new wave, and one that slowly rises through its sleepy tones to create something meaty. The sleepy neon of “Heaven Is No Feeling” churns along with angular dazzle, but leaves one needing a particular mood to stick with its more lethargic charge.

Honey Dijon – The Nightlife
Chicago, IL

Swimming in a lake of 90s influences, Honey Dijon‘s “The Nightlife” offers an intoxicating trip through a night roaming cities and dancehalls. Between additional samples that fill out the soundscape, the track looses toned of C+C Music Factory, Crystal Waters and touched of New Jack Swing, and drenches it in a shadowy, humid sound to take you into a club in its mix. Singer Chlöe offers a velvety delivery, with every line showing off more of the range and emotion of her performance. Intimate and seductive, the track is like a dance of smooth and calming tones luring you into a world of passion, love and discovery.

Geese – Getting Killed
Brooklyn

Sitting between experimental writing, jam band mechanics, a divine sense of sound, and an overall strength in their musicianship, Geese knows what they’re doing. Though their less typical songwriting form can make the longer listens a challenge at first, you settle into this record and sizzle by the end. “Trinidad” is this floating and constantly menacing beast of a track, playing between 60s psych and groove influences, and then exploding into truly unhinged freakouts and lava plumes of shredding noise. The smooth tones of “Cobra” reminds one of the Sheepdogs take on vintage rock with a sunnier California rock style mixed in, while the sunny rays expand the whole thing to a higher plain, and the thick bass keeps it driving forward. You feel the anti-chorus approach of the band the most on “100 Horses” as they really turn it into an eccentric jam track, and still manage to keep you lost in the haze. They find a narrow way through both types of writing on “Taxes,” as their already sublime drum and chanting intro bursts into an ecstatic second half of warm joy and fervor to go higher.

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