Sitting on Snaps

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Sitting on Snaps
Studio album by
Mecca Normal
Released1995
GenreIndie rock
LabelMatador Records[1]
Mecca Normal chronology
Flood Plain
(1993) 		Sitting on Snaps
(1995) 		The Eagle and the Poodle
(1996)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic3/5 stars[2]
Robert Christgau(dud)[3]
Rolling Stone4/5 stars[4]

Sitting on Snaps is an album by the Canadian indie rock duo Mecca Normal, released in 1995.[5][6]

Production[]

Calvin Johnson produced a few of the album's tracks.[7] Peter Jefferies played piano on "Cyclone" and "Vacant Night Sky", part of an effort to broaden the duo's sound beyond just Jean Smith's voice and David Lester's guitar.[2][8] Jefferies would form Two-Foot Flame with Smith around the time of the album; he produced and played drums on Mecca Normal's next record, The Eagle and the Poodle.[9]

Critical reception[]

Rolling Stone wrote: "Mecca Normal's approach is spare and self-contained, but long gone is the amateur primitivism of their folkish start; one might call this free punk, as avant and accomplished as its jazz counterpart."[4] The Los Angeles Times called the band "an intriguing, consistently challenging force," writing that Smith's "hissing, melodramatic vocals, somewhere between Grace Slick, Patti Smith and a dental drill, slither and flail next to eerie guitar work, while [her] abstract lyrics provoke strong and disquieting images."[10] The Santa Fe New Mexican thought that "the sound is amazingly full ... Smith's voice goes with the greatest of ease from slightly edgy to tortured animal."[11] The Record opined that Smith and Lester "conjure some nice mood pieces in 'Trapped Inside Your Heart', 'Cyclone', and 'Vacant Night Sky'."[12] SF Weekly wrote that "Smith's lyrics move from the overtly political to the elliptical; accordingly, her droning vocals occupy prettier soundscapes."[13]

Option deemed the album "highly unlistenable."[7] AllMusic wrote that Smith's vocals "are perhaps the strongest and most noticeable part of the combination this time around—she stretches her syllables out quite often, creating unsettled, overdubbed drones of sorts."[2]

Track listing[]

No.TitleLength
1."Vacant Night Sky" 
2."Something to be Said" 
3."Crimson Dragnet" 
4."Frozen Rain" 
5."Only Heat" 
6."Trapped Inside Your Heart" 
7."Alibi" 
8."Pamela Makes Waves" 
9."Beppo's Room" 
10."Cyclone" 
11."Gravity Believes" 

Personnel[]

  • David Lester - guitar
  • Jean Smith - vocals

References[]

  1. ^ "Mecca Normal". Trouser Press. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Sitting on Snaps - Mecca Normal | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
  3. ^ "Robert Christgau: CG: Mecca Normal". www.robertchristgau.com.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b McDonnell, Evelyn (Apr 20, 1995). "Recordings -- Sitting on Snaps by Mecca Normal". Rolling Stone (706): 73.
  5. ^ "Mecca Normal | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  6. ^ Jennings, Dave (Apr 15, 1995). "Sitting on Snaps by Mecca Normal". Melody Maker. 72 (15): 38.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Crist, Renee (July 1995). "Reviews". Option (63): 121.
  8. ^ Wolk, Douglas (Feb 1995). "Reviews". CMJ New Music Monthly (18): 38.
  9. ^ Vincentelli, Elisabeth (July 1996). "Reviews". Option (69): 117, 119.
  10. ^ Ali, Lorraine (11 Feb 1995). "Mecca Minimal". Los Angeles Times. p. F8.
  11. ^ Terrell, Steve (21 Apr 1995). "Sitting on Snaps by Mecca Normal". The Santa Fe New Mexican. PASATIEMPO. p. 18.
  12. ^ Weiler, Derek (2 Mar 1995). "Mecca Normal Sitting On Snaps Matador". The Record. p. D14.
  13. ^ "Super Normal". SF Weekly. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
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