Snapped Ankles - Stunning Luxury

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 11 / 3 / 2019

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Review

Energetic to the point of being frantic, Snapped Ankles' album is a pamphlet style tirade on the cons of London Town which has boomed in the wrong direction. More importantly, the music is a highly peculiar melting pot. It takes some effort to get used to their singer Paddy Austin's plaintive voice, which while less authoritative than the late Mark E. Smith runs close. Once you have got past that, you'll enjoy a merry ride across the turmoil and misery of today. Snapped Ankles aren't exactly pulling daisies but did have great fun recording 'Stunning Luxury' and reminiscing about the fields and woods making way for the ever expanding suburbs. Gradually widening their musical horizon with Sahara blues rock riffs on 'Letter From Hampi Mountain' which clash with Central-African rhythm patterns, Snapped Ankles stimulate biodiversity in music. Drawing inspiration from krautrock, fuzzy art rock and new wave, 'Stunning Luxury' is a well-crafted but zany hodgepodge. They show themselves to be activists with a good sense of sarcastic humour on 'Delivery Van', which starts with an afrobeat type of a groove and ends in traffic jam like chaos. 'Three Steps to a Development' is even cheekier with a Thompson Twins like ditty of bouncing new wave pop and has a significance that would annoy investors. I was pleased to hear congotronics incorporated on 'Skirmish in the Suburbs', and the album ticks all the right boxes with me. 'Stunning Luxury' is exactly the album that the cowards now working in radio will find find too disturbing for the listeners. No matter though how harsh many tracks appear, there's always consolation and compensation. I demand more elbow to Snapped Ankles.

Track Listing:-

1 Pestisound (Moving Out)
2 Tailpipe
3 Letter from Hampi Mountain
4 Rechargeable
5 Delivery Van
6 Three Steps to a Development
7 Skirmish in the Suburbs
8 Dial the Rings on a Tree
9 Drink and Glide
10 Dream and Formaldehyde

Band Links:-

https://www.snappedankles.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SNAPPEDANKLES
https://twitter.com/snappedankles

Label Links:-

http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/index.p
https://www.facebook.com/theleaflabel
https://twitter.com/theleaflabel
https://www.youtube.com/user/theleafla
https://plus.google.com/10909849748304

Have a Listen:-