Snuff – Come And Have A Go If You Think You’re Rachmaninoff

On this occasion I won’t go into how many albums/singles/EP’s Snuff have in the back catalogue, because actually it doesn’t seem relevant, as this is their first full acoustic offering and it comes after 37 years of existence.  So let’s just take this as a whole new venture and enjoy it for what it is.  I’m not going to try and be all clever and say that all these songs are old songs, truth is, I haven’t had the time to go check every single song from their catalogue, but I’m fairly confident they are (correct me if I’m wrong please).

Snuff are a band that hasn’t ever really from what I hear and read, ever got the credit or recognition they really deserve , they are a London punk/folk band who play songs that are so well written and have no end of melody to them, lyrically they stand up there with any good poetry I’ve ever read.  So the chance to hear the songs in their truest form is something I’ve looked forward to and to be honest, apart from a couple of songs on one album they did acoustically, this will be a first full release of this kind.

After listening to the whole album several times in succession, I’m pretty confident that anyone who loves this band or is even new to them, will without doubt be as impressed as I was with the song writing and pure down to earth lyrics that are given life by this collection of great musicians.  ‘All You Need’ is the first one to hit your ears, it comes in like a bullet to the heart, and then straight to ‘One Of Those Days’ a song that seems to reminisce or is that look forward after old times have now gone by. Then the wonderfully titled ‘Lemon Curd’ comes in like a well worn jacket it seems to make you feel not alone n this strange world, its TV Smith style is unmistakable.

Meanings are a little cryptic with Snuff songs, but this all adds to the brilliance of them, they take you on a journey of discovery and that’s fine by me, this whole album is filled with kind of ‘Streets Of London’ moments, just in a Snuff way.  What your struck by is the vocal that lives in every word, a use of harmonica, guitar and every bit of percussion that might be lying around, to produce some wonderfully true to life songs.

Everything from ‘Chalice Of Lunacy’ which seems exactly that on the surface, with a lyric like “Donald Duck, if you on the flight please quack your heart out, give us all a laugh”, but there is as always more to this that you need to fathom, to the magical ‘Thief’ with its Madness esque beat, a song that belongs on every play-list that’s looking for classic gems. 

If your already a fan of Snuff, you’re gonna be all over this like a rash, but if you have never listened to them before, start here and fall head over heals with their world of melodic punk poetry.  TV Smith was mentioned a little earlier, well this album gives you an insight into why this band are or should be spoken about within the same sentence. Unsung heroes of the scene, now take a bow! Because the album shows why you deserve to do so.

Go buy this album and keep this band making more music, you will never regret it.

go to Snuffband.com and change the world (well some of it anyway).