Snack Fans

The debut long-player from the London lo-fi noise-punk quartet, Snack Fans is full of sound and fury, invoking names like the Fall, the Descendents, Sleaford Mods, Parquet Courts, Sex Pistols, and Art Brut. The nervy "Plastic Canoe" and the punishing "Be a Bloody River" both eke out surrealistic tales of existential angst, while the punchy "Wish for a Cat" and closer "Jono Filling Bin Bags" take things quite literally, attempting to find that sweet spot between twentysomething cynicism and childlike wonder. If Dog Chocolate can find a way to both expand their sonic horizons and inject a little more gravitas into their surrealist lyrics, they could potentially be the U.K.'s answer to Frog Eyes. While the bulk of the 14-track, just-over-27-minute-long LP is delivered with a relative amount of affability and playfulness, there are dark undercurrents bubbling up beneath all of the ramshackle good cheer that suggest a restlessness that will likely inform future endeavors. ~ James Christopher Monger