London-based outfit The Snakes are back with a third album 'The Last Days Of Rock & Roll' and expand on their alt-country work, now using pedal-steel to give it that extra vibe.
The band have been around for about ten years now, and their previous releases 'Songs From The Satellites' (2006) and 'Sometime Soon...' (2010) have met with critical acclaim and rave reviews.
So, what about the latest effort? Well, certainly, there's full marks for observation when it comes to the lyrics, which are thought provoking, and in some cases challenging. The opening track 'Too Hard' is a country rock song which gets down to the heart of the matter very quickly, it is the type of song that would have grown men crying into their whisky as they hear another tale of heartbreak: - “Do you believe in love? I'm talkin' love at first sight?/ It's the love to make you change overnight/ Think you've found the one, you turn around she's gone, gone, gone/ Lovin' you is too hard, I'm broken on the wheel
Don't you know it's too hard lovin' you the way I do”.
The country ballad 'Three Little Wishes' is another great track, a country blues song along the lines of The Stones' (or Gram Parsons) 'Wild Horses'. The lyrics on this one do come over at times as a little sweet, however, this is an excellent tune: -
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“Three little wishes, like a fairytale come true/ Three little wishes, life, love and happiness to you/ I hope you wake up every morning, a little closer to your dreams/ Find a love you can depend on, no matter how impossible it seems”.
It's not all sweetness and light though. The anthemic country rock of 'Guardian Angel' manages to scratch well below the surface of ugly weekend scenes of drunkenness and violence. This for me was the top track on the album: - “Cocaine and lipstick, cigarettes and high-heeled shoes/ The factory girls want to dance with the office boys...” It starts off so well, a great night out, but soon descends into chaos: - “The gin and the whisky, the fights and the flashing lights/ The love and the punch ups, they'll do it all again come tomorrow night”.
'The Last Days Of Rock & Roll', is a good third album, which hopefully will see The Snakes gaining more fans and more success in a genre which is getting more crowded by the day.
The Snakes online
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