Snake Lips is an Indie Rock band from Portland, Maine and ‘Cat Beach’ is their latest album!
The style is definitely indie rock, but there is also a punk element present throughout the entire album. What I find most interesting about ‘Cat Beach’ is the direction they chose for the production sound. With these songs, it could sound like The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, or Jet, for example.
But there is an almost lo-fi vibe and sound to the songs that I find very interesting. In nerdy music production terms, it sounds like they put their favourite tube preamps and compressors on everything, and turned the saturation all the way up. The hats are as fuzzy as the guitars themselves sometimes, as well as the vocals. Even on ‘Get over it’, where they start with a semi-acoustic intro, there’s fuzz and buzz, and plenty of saturation!
I am also getting a little bit of Beach Boys vibes from some of their songs.
Overall, their songs are pretty upbeat and energetic, featuring a warm, almost vintage sound that I described earlier, along with nice double-tracked and harmonised vocals, and memorable, easy-to-follow sing-alongs.
I am absolutely sure that this is the kind of band that:
- Have lots and lots of fun when they rehearse, play concerts and make albums!
- Can definitely rock anything from a small venue to a big festival with their energy
Out of pure curiosity, I had a quick listen to their previous album ‘Happy Anxious’, because I find it very interesting how bands evolve from one album to the other and which elements they choose to keep and focus on, and what to “leave behind”.
I see that they come from a grittier sound, with more bass. It seems like they’ve moved on to a more hi-fi version of that sound (still lo-fi, though!), which is confusing yet. Personally, I miss that low end, and maybe a more balanced sound between the two would be preferable.
Of course, at this point, this is all a matter of personal opinion, and mind you, I am not a massive fan of the genre. However, I love music, and I don’t really care where it comes from, as long as it is well-made. And this is definitely well made. The only thing I can mention as room for improvement is perhaps more variation in terms of the song style and songwriting, especially in a 10-track album.
I would love to see these guys live though, grab a beer and headband a little bit 🙂
Written by Spiros Maus
