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Track Listings
| 1. Half Life |
| 2. Low Five |
| 3. Lightning Field |
| 4. Curl |
| 5. Destroying Angel |
| 6. Empathy |
| 7. Superbug |
| 8. Flowers And Silence |
| 9. Cute Sushi Lunches |
| 10. Ten To Twenty |
| 11. Splinter |
| 12. Wife By Two Thousand |
Product Description
Product Description
Product Description
Customer Reviews
It is true to say that the more memorable songs do appear at the start of the album, but it is unfair to say that it tails off. 'Splinter' maintains an eerie yet beautiful atmosphere throughout and just because a song like 'Cute Sushi Lunches'doesn't have "single" written all over it, doesn't mean it is any less worthwhile.
Ignore the sceptics who thought the Sneaker Pimps WAS Kelli. Chris Corner is more than capable of keeping up the high standard set by 'Becoming X'.
The Pimps succeded in recording a great guitar record that is ecclectic enough to distance itself from the bland indie rubbish prevelent at the moment.
Give it the attention it deserves...
As I suppose I could have guessed from the fact that Chris is singing again on this one, it turns out to be a bit of a turnaround as well as a development. I was mildly surprised to find Sneaker Pimps in the dance section at HMV even on the basis of Becoming X, but after this album it can only be some sort of hideous mistake.
It's good that Chris Corner's vocals and writing are so dark and individual, because without that twist, Splinter could have been a very bland album indeed. The genius behind all their previous work is still in evidence, but it wouldn't have held together a funkless male-vocal album by itself. As it is, though, their inventiveness and variety works impeccably well with this new guitar-driven style, even if their newfound maturity would have worked better with the old style.
It's all very, very serious and almost invariably sinister. Tracks like Lightning Field and Flowers And Silence have an absolutely inimitable spooky ambience to them, and while the relentlessly dark theme can take some immsersing-yourself in, it's addictive once it's taken a hold.
It's extremely consistent and the atmosphere it retains is one you can thoroughly lose yourself in. Despite the fact that stuff in this style has to be very competent and professional to succeed at all, Sneaker's first venture into it triumphs faultlessly.
All that said, I'd still like to hear the next album regress to the deafening drums and weird synth of Becoming.
Gone was the female vocalist Kelli Dayton (now Kelli Ali), and gone were the familiar trappings of mid-90's electronica.
The sound here is harder edged, more epic and specious, yet profoundly intimate and affecting.
Main writer Chris Corner takes on the mantle of vocalist for the first time here, all seething bitterness, self loathing and androgynous vulnerability. His vocals suit the new direction perfectly, and the decision to replace Kelli is all too understandable; the new maturity and scathingly personal songs beg for the voice of their writer to fulfil them, and what a voice he brings.
From the slow motion swirl of opener Half-Life, through the corporate critique of Low Five and on to the operatic thrust of Lightning Field, this album showcases an important talent in frontman Corner, and the band as a whole.
The 80's slap bass of Curl drives a song contemplating self doubt and failure, themes which would come to dominate both Sneaker Pimps and Corner's IAMX projects, while Empathy, Flowers And Silence, Cute Sushi Lunches and title-track Splinter are the first hints at Corner's sweet and sour softer side. The wistful vocals and sweet backing tracks offset the cutting intelligence and sense of disillusionment on show in these songs.
Superbug is an angry, rocking howl, another staple which would manifest itself in later work, and back in '99 was a world away from 6 Underground and Post Modern Sleaze.
Second single Ten To Twenty again covers the subjects of underachievement and being swallowed whole by the corporate world.... Read more ›
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