Album Review: Snake Eyes - 'Cash Rich'
Newcomer Grit-pop duo Snake Eyes make a brash and individual statement with their debut album ‘Cash Rich’.
Since their 2020 inception, Snake Eyes have cut their teeth over and over again in the UK and European live scene, touring constantly and building a name for themselves with sensational bands like You Me At Six, Kid Kapichi, and the Meffs. This constant touring has led to an airtight number of singles that the band have been able to ride the wheels off of for the last 6 years, and now the time has come for the culmination of all this hard work into one consolidated project. ‘Cash Rich’ isn’t just an album; it’s a new beginning for an underdog band. The quality of this project is second to none and will no doubt be an excellent platform for the tenacious duo of Jim Heffy and Thomas Coe-Brooker to really start to build a legacy.
This album doesn’t shy away from any themes, marrying their gritty and dense bass lines and guitar parts to a more indie drum track and vocal sound. This is a formula we've seen done many times before, but many of the tracks, like the opener ‘Jar Full of Wasps’ and ‘HDTV’, make it feel like the first time you are hearing it. There is a real tenacity to the vocals, often forced through gritted teeth with an honest and unrelenting Brighton accent. This formula makes a very strong opening portion for the album and hooks you from the get-go. This grip is not relinquished either as the talent carries long into the midsection of the album but with a much brighter tone and theme, every song from the mid-section sounds a bit sillier, as the album ambles on it almost feels as though it doesn't quite know what it is, not in an aimless and unsure way but in a creative and freeing way.
‘Cash Rich’ feels like a lot of things, and the middle and back half of this album really demonstrate this. While a large portion of the singles reside in the front 6 tracks of the album, it feels as though the creativity is really allowed to flourish in the back portion. Many of the deep cuts feature a more expressive, malleable fundamental makeup, shifting from bright Teen Mortgage to acoustic ballads. This blend of styles really has you guessing as to what might be next. Will it be serious or will it be a groovy track about soup? Just press play and find out. This constant change of pace creates a real out-of-the-box experience. Tracks like the aforementioned ’Soup’ and ’Swing Away’ stay light and unperturbed by distortion with clear, concise riffs and brilliantly simple drum parts that can’t help but get the feet moving. They then trade this low trudge in for beautifully messy choruses, rife with style and life. This subversion of expectations makes these tracks really stand a cut above the rest. As time marches on, the album begins to come to a close, but not before a brilliant stretch of imaginative and well-crafted tracks.
Closing out on ‘Headache’, ’Swing Away’ and ‘Robot Boy’ is exactly what this album needed: three different styles to be appreciated by every single listener. Despite the lack of stylistic cohesion, there is an innate feeling that they belong together; something about these tracks feels intrinsically theirs. Keeping the album slightly tangled is the right move for these guys; it makes it feel more natural, something that music as a whole is missing in just about every genre these days. Seeing bands keep not only a sense of identity but an agency over their sound as opposed to overproduction, is what gives this project its charm.
‘Cash Rich’ is out everywhere March 6th via Alcopop! Records and will not be one to miss as these future festival headliners are making announcements en masse, with not only UK and EU headline tour dates but multiple festival announcements dropping left, right and centre. It’s very comforting to see bands that are still relatively fresh-faced really trying to make their music identifiable and original. This non-conformity and ability to just get weird with it will ensure that fans not only revisit their music, but may be inspired enough to go and create for themselves. If you find yourself listening to a project like this one and wishing you could make something like that, stop wishing and start doing. Music is for everyone, and this album affirms that to me.
Words by Josh Pook
