Richard Snow & The Inlaws - Am I Really That Boring?

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 26 / 6 / 2012

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Review

It’s been some time since we heard anything new from Nottingham’s Richard Snow, his first two albums (‘Richard Snow’ originally issued in 2001 and 2005’s ‘Tuesday Music’) have both been reissued in recent years but now with ‘Am I Really That Boring?’ we finally have something fresh from the King of the Rickenbacker. While the distinctive sound of the 12 string Rickenbacker is obviously all over this collection of ten Snow originals (bassist Phil Edmundson gets the credit for one song, ‘Fishspeaker’, where he swops his bass for the 12 string and you don’t even notice it’s not a Snow original showing that there is more than one Wilson fanatic in this band), it would appear that Snow, while not completely abandoning his Brian Wilson fixation, has moved on a little. Beach Boys/Wilson harmonies are still a major part of Snow’s sound, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that when they are produced as superbly as this. Strangely the song that is furthest removed from Wilson’s influence is ‘If You Don’t Rescue Me’, a solo track from Snow in the truest sense, Snow plays all the instruments on this ballad including some beautiful Spanish guitar, but as the song ends twenty seconds of pure Beach Boys harmonies emerge to remind you that Snow is still wearing his influences proudly on his sleeve. Those twenty seconds make a reappearance later on the album opening the track ‘Do You Want To’, which is one of Snow’s most obviously Wilson influenced songs and an absolute little gem of a track. But while it would appear that Snow is never going to desert those Californian sounds completely there are signs here that he is exploring new territories. While Snow’s use of the Rickenbacker on the majority of the tracks on ‘Am I Really That Boring?’ is also going to bring up the old comparisons of the Byrds and the Beatles, and the opening song, ‘Stop Your Crying’, begins like a long-lost Byrds track from ’65, especially in the instrumental breaks, he still retains enough originality in his vocals to stop Snow being classed as a complete McGuinn clone. It’s a neat little song with excellent background vocals from both Edmundson and drummer Justin Monkton. Drafting in current Wilson band member Nelson Bragg for backing vocals on ‘Middle Class Girl’ (along with the ever wonderful Anny Celsi) further enforces The Beach Boys influence, but still Snow manages to inject enough originality into the song through his vocals, which is no mean feat, to make the song sound fresh and contemporary. That his music has its roots in the sixties is something that Snow doesn’t even try to hide. Lyrically songs like ‘Middle Class Girl’ hark back to the more innocent times of the mid-sixties, and it’s an indication of Snow’s talent that he can take such obvious influences and not sound dated at all. Snow has looked back over his shoulder on past albums lyrically, ‘Days Of Simplicity’ on ‘Tuesday Music’ had Snow longing for times long past, and he revisits the same theme here on ‘21st Century’; with his 12 string to the fore, Snow’s yearning vocals suit the track perfectly and stop the song from being too oversentimental. Again the harmonies are perfect and the slide guitar, also performed by Snow, is simply sublime. So while Snow is still producing excellent pop music so obviously influenced by his musical heroes and the sounds of the sixties it does appear that on his third album he has tried to inject a little more of Richard Snow into the sound than he allowed on his first two albums. The songs where Snow doesn’t strap on that Rickenbacker, the aforementioned ‘If You Don’t Rescue Me’ and ‘Never Hear Your Voice Again’ show that Snow is more than capable of making original pop music of some quality. Shorn of the distinctive Rickenbacker sound, but not always of those Wilson influenced harmonies, those two songs make you long for a Richard Snow album of more of the same. The closing song, ‘Am I Really That Boring’, shows yet another side to Snow, this time swopping the Rickenbacker for a Gibson Les Paul, the harder sound works well with Snow’s treated vocals and proves that he is far from being stuck totally in the sixties, with amusing /worrying lyrics concerning obsessions that many will, in fact, relate to it’s a clever way of closing the album leaving you wondering if Snow will take this direction on his next collection of songs. ‘Am I Really That Boring’ is Snow’s strongest set of songs to date and shows that he is more than a Beach Boys obsessive. While his earlier albums have stood the test of time well, one feels that with this latest collection Snow will finally step out of the shadows.

Track Listing:-

1 Stop Your Crying
2 Middle Class Girl
3 If You Don't Rescue Me / Do You Want to
4 21st Century
5 I Still Love Your Face
6 Never Hear Your Voice Again
7 Do You Want To?
8 Take Me Back Home (No.8)
9 Good Guys Never Win
10 Fishspeaker
11 Am I Really That Boring?

Band Links:-

https://www.reverbnation.com/richardsn
https://www.facebook.com/richardsnowan
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richardsn