"do dead men dream of grander lives than this"
Early Mournings by UK alt-folk, art folk collective Snake Eats Boy is like your average Van Gogh painting, instantly sad, yet hauntingly beautiful. The acoustic guitar, exquisitely upfront amid ambient sounds of birds chirping and trancy lead guitar lines (slowly pouring in) provides the backdrop for terribly dreamy and poetic melancholy lyrics sung beautifully and when the chorus sweeps in with voices en masse singing:
"do dead men dream of grander lives than this... than this...
only to be told they don't exist... exist... only to be told they don't exist"
... as dark Gothic violins melodies swirl in like deathly sad little tornadoes, the song feels like a dark cloud opera that you at once want to absorb fully but also want to run away from and into the light.
Snake Eats Boy, a collective starting in the Kent countryside (2010) became more fully formed, once it moved to Hastings many years later with local songwriters and producers including members of Somnians and Al Mitchell & The New Born Sinners. I will admit fully that I don't know much about them (yet) but absolutely find Early Mournings utterly intriguing.
The song was released by London’s Straight Lines Are Fine (FONDA, Slow Riot, Somnians, Al Mitchell & The New Borns Sinners, et al) label on June 5th.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
soundcloud
A haunting slice of melancholia recalling the bleak tenderness of Elliott Smith, ’Early Mournings’ winds its way through subtexts of youthful despondency and the aching despair of young male alienation. Its author narrating an insomnia induced panic attack; “I was falling down the staircase, before I hit the bottom, I was caught by cotton, I feel the pillow under my face” before the chorus refrain “did dead men dream of grander lives than this…only to be told they don’t exist” capturing a cynical coming of age realisation; like a 00’s Holden Caulfield being prescribed his Sertraline in the picturesque Garden Of England instead of the mean streets of New York.
Their moniker referencing a popular tongue in cheek You Tube video, Snake Eats Boy was initially conceived as a musical project in the Kent countryside of the early 2010’s. But it wasn’t until a relocation to Hastings several years later that the collective was fully formed with local songwriters & producers; it's participants including members of Somnians and Al Mitchell & The New Born Sinners. As Britain plunged into the 2020 Lockdown a Soundcloud page appeared, populating with intriguingly titled demos - ‘The Haunting Of H Quinn’, ‘Butterflies Above The Belt’ and ‘Occupado’ - at an ever increasingly prolific rate.
At the heart of this new music lies the frail beauty of acoustic folk-noir luminaries Will Oldham, Mark Linkous & Conor Oberst. But just as Sparklehorse and Bright Eyes were prone to full electric sonic outbursts, Snake Eats Boy’s electric guitars threaten to unleash unpredictable, violent strikes, just as the schizophrenic reptile of the collective’s moniker moves from docile house-pet to aggressive predator.
And with senses finely-tuned to their surroundings, Snake Eats Boy channel an environmental influence into their music…the folky beginnings of a countryside upbringing giving way to the wavy-surf tones of electric guitars from a decade of living by the coast.
Their moniker referencing a popular tongue in cheek You Tube video, Snake Eats Boy was initially conceived as a musical project in the Kent countryside of the early 2010’s. But it wasn’t until a relocation to Hastings several years later that the collective was fully formed with local songwriters & producers; it's participants including members of Somnians and Al Mitchell & The New Born Sinners. As Britain plunged into the 2020 Lockdown a Soundcloud page appeared, populating with intriguingly titled demos - ‘The Haunting Of H Quinn’, ‘Butterflies Above The Belt’ and ‘Occupado’ - at an ever increasingly prolific rate.
At the heart of this new music lies the frail beauty of acoustic folk-noir luminaries Will Oldham, Mark Linkous & Conor Oberst. But just as Sparklehorse and Bright Eyes were prone to full electric sonic outbursts, Snake Eats Boy’s electric guitars threaten to unleash unpredictable, violent strikes, just as the schizophrenic reptile of the collective’s moniker moves from docile house-pet to aggressive predator.
And with senses finely-tuned to their surroundings, Snake Eats Boy channel an environmental influence into their music…the folky beginnings of a countryside upbringing giving way to the wavy-surf tones of electric guitars from a decade of living by the coast.
No comments:
Post a Comment