I very much wanted to like "Snack Attack". It's available on the Brooklyn, NY outfit A Great Big Pile of Leaves' "You're Always On My Mind" album. What's not to like about that title? Visions of ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, potato chips and scads of other munchies dance around in one's brain. The band name is cute as well. Autumn leaves. A nice well-worn rake. Little kids running around in frolic. Then I plugged into the tune itself. Jumping into leaves is an act requiring energy. Singer Pete Weiland appears to have tried pasting his tongue to the roof of his mouth while uttering decent chunks of the lyrics. Maybe it's the jarring crunch of his guitar coupled with drummer Tyler Soucy's weighty banging. However you slice it his Pete's singing sort of bleeds over into the instruments. Leaves me left with a paucity of sympathy for the fact he and the female he's conversing with "never work out quite right late at night". I feel sorry that all the horsepower was used up before Pete could save some energy for his vocal technique. Could it be he designed it to be messy as a way to clue us in that his current relationship is also messy? Perhaps since he makes reference to late night he wanted to orchestrate the mad buzz of chaos which occurs during the late part of the day. Prime example of good intentions gone astray. There is a nice level of musicianship at work here. The guitar work is octane engulfed. The drumming flows naturally through Tyler's sticks. I'm not saying this song threatens to be more of an instrumental jam session than a vocal effort. Just implying that Pete's cratering under the weight of all that enchanting noise. In short "Snack Attack" might leave you with audio indigestion. That's not a commendable taste to leave in one's mouth.
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