Customer Reviews

Snowbug

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Did you ever hear music that completely transforms your sense of time and space transporting you back to what resembles either time spent in the womb or instead a long forgotten drug induced out of body experience? No? Oh...Snowbug by The High Llamas has that sort of effect. This is very different music. It is completely magical, lushly mellow, but eerily familiar in a very deep, spiritual way. Listening to this album reminds me of Mel Gibson's character in the movie conspiracy theory. Throughout the movie Gibson is haunted by these very fuzzy flashbacks to something that he knows nothing about. These visions seem so familiar to him yet he can't make sense of them. In case you hadn't seen the movie I won't ruin it by saying any more. Snowbug has a similar kind of effect on me but not in the unpleasant way that Gibson's character experiences it. For me they are very vague recollections of moments of childhood. I remember sitting in the backseat of our '69 Lincoln traveling along the belt parkway, my young parents in the front, and the associations "Windy" on the radio. This music throws me back to that era. It is psychedelic and nostalgic without being contrived. If you haven't already figured it out I absolutely love this music. I think it is the most interesting and satisfying CD I've had the pleasure of adding to my collection in a very long time.

This music is about atmosphere but it is more than just aural wallpaper. Snowbug is an album, which defies classification. It's some sort of retro- futuristic easy- listening lounge music, except it's very... strange. This sonic delight is a masterpiece of modern production. Throughout the listener is caressed with the deep rich sounds of strings, marimbas, brass, and electronics while the angelic timbres of flute, banjo, nylon guitar, glockenspiel, and the beautiful vocals of Latetia Saidler of the similarly quirky Stereolab. All of this has the potential to evolve into a cloudy harmonic bisque but alas there are never two timbres occupying the same harmonic frequency at the same time resulting in a crystal clear recording with the delicate harmonics slicing their way through the lush atmospheres below while never overstepping the boundaries so effectively introduced by the production team.

Fans of the group Stereolab will find the confines of Snowbug to be warm and hospitable. The sounds are similar but while Stereolab strives for the upbeat and rhythmically diverse, the high llamas continually seek to melodically yet sedately pay homage to composers of the past. The album's first track, "Bach Ze," speaks for both the band's exacting nature and its almost quaint futuristic drive. The chorus -- "From moon to Mars the sliders slip/But now we rarely make the trip" -- rises over whispered acoustic guitar, stately strings and electronic teasers, mourning a musical and verbal image of a '60s-era studio producer poring over his mixing board. The band's backward gaze becomes a bit less explicit as it traipses along -- as the lyrics to "Harpers Romo" tell it, "Shutters come down, safety inside/Exile at home, this is more than just a place where we hide" -- but a eulogistic glance at the past is never too far from view.

"Snowbug," like all of the Llamas' work, is mostly a meditation on a small handful of closely related melodic themes. Those melodies are always stunning, though, as crafted by a band graced with the hands of musicians and the ears of producers. The songs are rich with sounds of instruments and styles ranging from French pop, Brazilian rhythms, acoustic instrumentation, wah-wah pedals, nylon guitars, and vibraphone. The Llamas are hip to the current trend in the recording industry of integrating the live studio in lieu of a reliance on studio gadgetry. The live element brightens up the recording as a whole, with an abundance of evidence on such songs as "Green Coaster" and "Cookie Bay" (the latter featuring vocals from Latetia and Mary).

Snowbug is a masterpiece of adult contemporary pop. The dreamy soundscapes coupled with the catchy melodic musings and intricate arrangements is toothsome and satisfying. The production is a tour de force. If you own a high quality audio system treat it to Snowbug. The sophisticated craftsmanship will overwhelm your musical senses and leave you humming for weeks to come.

Best album I've heard since Radiohead's OK Computer.

One of the most creative pop bands going today, this has to be the Llamas finest effort yet. The album is so damned catchy I've played non-stop for the past 3 weeks. I'm sick of it, yet I can't stop listening even so!

Favorite tunes change from day to day but Janet Jingle and Green Coaster have to be the most infectious things I've heard in years. Is it possible to give a higher rating than 5 stars?

Pay no attention to those critics behind the cathode ray curtain who lament all evolutionary influence. Sure, at times these Llamas do sound a bit like Brian Wilson or Steely Dan. Everything - including music - is evolutionary - reguardless of your perticular genius. This music surely stands on it's own. Things get off to a bright start with the acoustic guitar and banjo of "Bach ZE", with just enough strings to warm and soothe. Not only will you not tire of "Harper's Romo", but you will likely join in with your own improvised melody. "Hoops" is probably best appreciated while driving through a very slow carwash (you'll see). "Cookies" is a tasty, casual Euro-Pop ditty with generous portions of signature "Ba-ba-Bahh" harmonies, followed by an agreeable "Triads" containing some nice rythmic and instrumentational foils. Be patient with "American Scene", "Montecito", "Janet Jangle" and "Amin". Although they don't surprise, they will delight.

The 45 seconds of "Daltons Star" is really enough. With all of it's Baldamenti-isms, "Cotton to the Bell" could have been a more memorable theme song for Lynch's Twin Peaks. "Green Coaster" is just plain perfect pop with great ensemble playing and singing. The pure beauty and deceivably complex layers of "Cut the Dummy Loose" make it one of the prettiest and most unforgettable songs the Llamas have ever done. This is one chance you should take. It sounds damn good in the morning - and nightime too!

This is probably the best High Llamas album to date. It is even better than Gideon Gaye and easy-listening's concept album "Hawaii". The lab girls, Mary Hansen and Laetitia Sadier lend their beautiful voices to a couple of songs, which would not sound so great if performed by Sean himself. This album also has a lot to do with Brazilian music and Bossa Nova, a new direction the group seems to be pursuing, yet maintaining the Llamas' trademark sound: the lush orchestrations, the intricate harmonies, the gorgeous symphonic melodies are all there. Sean, if you ever read this, know that I am the biggest admirer of your music in the whole world! Excellent. Splendid. A definitive must-have.

Sean O'Hagan was one-half of the late, great Microdisney, one of the great underappreciated groups of the 1980s. Freed from the angry missives of his partner in crime, Cathal Coughlan (later of the Fatima Mansions), O'Hagan's albums as the High Llamas reveal a melancholoy, sedate side that more than once sounds like Microdisney's "Everybody Is Fantastic."

"Snowbug" isn't acid jazz, but it's also not pop, new age, or even the dreaded "adult album alternative." It sits out there just barely on the edge of the avant-garde, applying modern instrumentation to the classic pop structure. And while O'Hagan can certainly sound like Brian Wilson when he wants to, "Snowbug" is not 1960s schmaltz merely reworked with a few dots and loops.

Do the High Llamas ever cut loose? "Green Coaster" is a pleasant surprise -- uptempo, bouncy in the extreme, light and playful. As the penultimate track, it's sure to leave a smile on your face as you wonder why your friends haven't yet heard of the High Llamas.

i stumbled onto giddeon gaye and could not have been more pleased so i followed up some months later with snowbug....wow....efforts like this are rare, this is the direction music could stand heading in for a while!! buy it!

If I had to choose one word to describe this CD, I would probably choose "easy-going." The 13 tracks on Snowbug are jazzy and melodic, with casual tempos that seem to say "Why hurry?" Add some fun excursions with keyboards, combine with the fact that some songs take over a minute to completely fade out, and you've got a CD that positively saunters. There is exactly one song which has a faster flow to it, but it doesn't really count, seeing as how it only lasts for 54 seconds.

Hope you don't like your lyrics meaningful, either. Vocalist Sean O'Hagan sings phrases like "Greet the fabric pattern chain" and "A run to space could save the South" as if they meant something, rather than being pure nonsense. I suspect the lyrics have more to do with the sound of the words than their actual meanings. Guest vocalists Mary Hansen and Laetitia Sadier are the high points of this CD. Both of Stereolab fame, they contribute smooth harmonies to a few of the songs. O'Hagan is a competent singer; although he doesn't quite have the range he thinks he does, as his voice gets more than a little wavery in some places.

I found I enjoyed this CD the most when I put it on as background music, since I got a little bored listening to it actively. It doesn't get in the way when you're trying to work, yet it provides fairly entertaining atmosphere. If you want to sit back and relax to jazz that's a little more spacey than your old standards, buy Snowbug and you won't be disappointed.

I was a fan of Stereolab when I heard about this associated group. I walked into Best Buy and bought their only copy on the shelf. Yet, the MTV bands have hundreds of CDs on the shelf. This doesn't make any sense to me. To compare the two musical styles, I would say play Stereolab at night and Llamas during the day. All the instrumental portions of this CD are excellent (I think their even better than some of my Santana instrumentals). The one thing I don't understand are the lyrics. They seem to have a feel and be coherant, but are worthless. Yes, I would say that they try to create a song of feeling like the Beach Boys. The CD is great, but there is some potential to add meaning to the words. I don't know if this band is into that, but even if they kept the lyrics the same, I would still buy it. The instruments are crystal clear(good!) To sum it up, this is a smooth but poppy album. I would check it out if you like either the Beach Boys or Stereolab (they sound like the sweet happy songs of Stereolab).

Wow! With "Snowbug", a return trip to "Hawaii", Sean O'Hagan and friends have created their most accessible CD yet. While retaining the Wilsonesque arrangements for the most part, the vocal aspects of the production have been honed to a more refined level, thanks in part to the inclusion of more female background vocals. Gone are the avant-garde electronic-bloop excursions of "Cold and Bouncy". The new direction on this CD is the incorporation of Brazilian influences into the already exotic High Llamas cocktail. These developments in the band's sound gives "Snowbug" a warmer overall feel than any of their previous efforts. I don't see how any critics could argue the true excellence of this collection of songs, though many have pointed to the Llamas too-strong Beach Boys influence in the past. It is unassailable in it's musical genius, a beautiful work of art.

This is fast becoming my favorite High Llamas album of them all.

Not because of any one stand-out tune, but because all of them flow together so nicely. It's not overly-long (like Hawaii), it doesn't annoy with gratuitious electronic burps and farts (like Cold n Bouncy), it doesn't plunder the past so obviously as Gideon Gaye, but it is still more mysterious and conceptual, less pop-oriented than Santa Barbara.

Snowbug seems to work on every level---play it quiet and it is unobtrusive background music, or turn it up and it is mellow, but groovy. I don't seem to get tired of it and I have been playing it almost daily for a month. There's not too many other albums I can say that about. Listen to the fade-out of "Don't Go To Montecito"....the Llamas find a groove there that could go on all night. As they say, it's all good...