Where does the modern musician stake their claim? Sometimes, the kickoff is swift and explosive. Other times, it’s as humble as a “dirt poor but enthused 20-year-old from Madison” and a collection of self-made indie spunk tinged with a psychedelic swirl. Snufkin’s first EP, “Snufkin EP,” follows those humble roots with its few songs recorded in a basement with the DIY sensibility that so many rock bands ascribe to.
Musically, Snufkin seems to pull from psychedelia’s idolized version of the Beatles. “Pell” rumbles with an enthusiastic recreation of the acid trip of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” while “You Don’t Need Me Now” has the kind of R&B groove that Please Please Me’s marathon recordingwas addicted to. Basslines follow gentle pop leads, and those ever-familiar organs hum their Hammond tunes. The drums even crack with Ringo simplicity. Similarly, don’t be surprised to find yourself singing “It’s getting better all the time” during the downstrokes of “Summer.”
“Snufkin EP” isn’t just a rehashing of Beatles clones, though. While it’ll remind you of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour hits and deep cuts alike, there’s a little more to it. It’s more like Snufkin is channeling those influences with exaltation, and then slowly lets that give way, either into guitar rock destruction (“Peace of Mind”) or pop-rock exuberance (“Carefree”).
Further pulling away is “About a Homeless Man,” which trades in the clean pop structures for a lonely crawl through the mind of a man torn between physical homelessness and something more internal. It’s stripped bare of the pop-rock from before, culminating in a more Radiohead-bound psychedelic rumination.
Snufkin’s debut EP sees a man embodying the stylings of influences either intentional or implicit, channeling a Liverpoolian sound and tempered to the DIY standards of Madison. For a debut EP, it’s very good—we can see where Snufkin is coming from and where Snufkin is going. With any luck, though, we’ll see the artist can set aside these training wheels and take a stronger stand with his own voice. When these influences step aside—deconstructed with a guitar crash or stripped to bare meditation—something really special is born.
Grade: B+
