If the West Lothian prodigies wanted to produce a debut album which would hop between tastes and whet the appetite of most music lovers, then they have succeeded.
Their genre-bending debut LP, ‘W.L.’, flickers between styles in a bold manner, demonstrating a range that some of their blander counterparts could only dream of possessing.
Opening with the angsty and melancholic ‘Top Deck’, which frontman Jack Cochrane began working on as a teenager, reveals the band’s softer side instantly. You are then thrust into the discernible fuzzy riff of ‘Always’, which is groove-laden and emotive in equal measure.
On ‘Juan Belmonte’, ‘All Your Friends’ and ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’, the four-piece’s unique ability to combine the grit of indie-rock with the funk of dance music is on full display. The presence of Primal Scream on their list of influences is evident, without being exploited to the extent that it detracts from originality.
Some of their most ardent fans will have been sceptical about the band’s first ever single, ‘Glasgow’, being remastered and re-released. Many bands fall into the habit of overproducing much-loved older tracks, but the new version of ‘Glasgow’ still packs a punch despite its fresh polish. Bearing a closer resemblance to how it is performed live, the old favourite clung on to its rawness throughout the facelift and will still endear long-term fans.
The summer gleam of ‘Maybe California’ is the perfect soundtrack for festival camp sites, and the snarl of the defiant ‘Don’t Forget It (Punk)’ is the perfect soundtrack for festival main stages.
Bands with roots in indie-rock regularly turn their noses up at the prospect of dipping into pop, due to their fear of the mainstream. The Snuts, however, carry none of that arrogance and ‘Somebody Loves You’ is a bona fide pop anthem which has already graced radio airwaves.
The heartfelt ‘No Place I’d Rather Go’, previously unreleased, gives Cochrane a platform to fully explore his excellent vocal delivery. Throughout the album, he both serenades and snarls to give tracks certain attitudes and hammer home the feelings that are conveyed.
It is only April, but it is hard to imagine too many debut albums topping ‘W.L.’ in 2021.
