This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Talk about throwing fans for a loop.
It was bizarre enough trying to wrap my head around the fact that Stuart David — leader of electronica outfit Looper — used to play bass for British twee-pop collective Belle & Sebastian. But now, just three albums into his second career, David is shifting his priorities yet again. Unlike the bright, homespun dance fare of his first discs Up A Tree and Geometric, The Snare takes listeners on a dark journey down the back alleys of technoir. Seamlessly fusing slinky trip-hop beatboxes and sweet synths with twangy guitars and horns to draft sinister seductive melodies and dangerous downbeat grooves, David lays a shadowy, burnished foundation for dry, dusty vocals whose soul-man-in-the-chillout-room textures and knee-deep harmonies recall wry popsters like 10CC, Squeeze and Beautiful South. “I’m caught,” David confesses on the title cut. You will be, too. Happily.
