“We want to be risky. We don’t want to fall into the trap of being an indie band with one hit who can never follow it up or change it up”, stated Snuts frontman Jack Cochrane back in 2019. It’s been nearly five years since The Snuts released their first hit, ‘Glasgow’, and for the boys from West Lothian, a lot has changed.
Musically, it feels inconceivable that the band would replicate something close to the lightning-in-a-bottle, hometown, prideful energy that was initially captured on the first demo of ‘Glasgow’. For what it’s worth though, that can only be seen as a good thing. Bands should change and strive towards better and more innovative artistic expressions. Their second record, ‘Burn The Empire’ packed a lot of social commentary and politically charged lyrics across its entire runtime, and was a more slick and mature outing than their debut ‘W.L’.
Their third record, ‘Millennials’, arrives in quick succession to its predecessor, with the band wasting little time in returning to the studio. Its songs are brief and crafted with the pure intention of grabbing your ears and making you move. Cochrane stated that creating music to dance to was fundamental in the recording process, and it shows in its sound with each song possessing snappy beats and heavily produced choruses.
The band have shown before that they’re capable of making dance tracks, and good ones too. Bassist Callum Wilson is always quick to provide the necessary grooves, and Cochrane truly has a voice made for the hits. However, a judgement on whether these traits lend themselves to a cohesive project might have to wait until ‘Millennials’ makes it to the live stage. Not everything works, but when it does it is often overcomingly infectious.
‘Gloria’ was the first single to be released and acts as the album opener, arriving with a sky-high BPM and sun-kissed guitar leads. Cochrane knows his way around a chorus by now, punctuating the track with his infectious Glaswegian-tinted vocals that fans have all learned to love. It’s already easy to picture the track being the highlight of the TRNSMT big stage, a track perfectly crafted for the Scottish sun and tins of Dark Fruits. ‘Millionaires’ keeps the spirits high again, with a bumpy bass line accompanying Cochrane’s lyrics of finding real currency in relationships: “Don’t you worry, we’ll be rich I swear/If love was money, we’d be millionaires”. Cochrane’s words may be on the nose but they remain sincere, and the track proves itself to be a worthy single. ‘Butterside’ is another standout, with a noughties-sounding instrumental melting in your ear and the production toned down for effective and cleaner tones.
However, one of the unfortunate shortcomings of ‘Millennials’ is its length, coming in at just short of half an hour, and with seven of the ten tracks not making the three-minute mark the record feels as though it’s only starting to make an impression as the curtains are beginning to draw to a close. There’s little room to breathe as the tracks fly by either, with almost every one of them packing enough punch to contend to be the first single. They’re quick-paced and snappy, and back to back to back they quickly start to feel as though they’re in a rush to finish the record.
‘YoYo’ feels like a step too far in the direction of ‘Pop Charts’ territory, with its chorus filled with exploding sounds all fighting at once for the attention of your ears. It’s a problem that finds itself reoccurring throughout a chunk of the record, with a lot of the album blending into a cohesive block of noise, such as ‘Nova Star’ and ‘Dreams’ proving too sweet to come one after each other. Thankfully, ‘Circles’ is a welcomed change of pace even if it is the closing track, acting as the sentimental finisher yet straying away from cliches due to its heartfelt performances. Cochrane and co will be aware that this newfound sound won’t be for everyone but they don’t seem to care, (as they shouldn’t), putting everything into creating an image of who they desire to be as artists.
The Snuts end their third album with a commendable attempt to change up their style. There’s an abundance of ear candy on display, with the production often turned up to the highest dial and some excellent choruses scattered throughout its short runtime. ‘Millennials’ is overcome with joy and noise, albeit sometimes to its detriment, yet it has plenty of songs that will find their home for years to come on the TRNSMT main stage. Whether the Glasgow boys keep up this heightened mainstream sound for their fourth album will remain to be seen, but for now, die-hard fans will listen and enjoy it in all of its Gloria.
Words by Niall McGreevy