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The Snare is the third album by the Scottish band Looper, released in 2002.[2][3] Frontman Stuart David adopted the persona of Peacock Johnson.[4]

The Snare
Studio album by Looper
Released	2002
Label	Mute[1]
Producer	Peacock Johnson
Looper chronology
The Geometrid (2000) The Snare (2002) Offgrid:Offline (2015)

Production

The album shares themes and characters with David's novel The Peacock Manifesto.[5] "This Evil Love" is about romantic obsession.[6] The music shifted from the dance styles of the first two albums to include downbeat and trip hop elements.[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
The Gazette	[9]
Pitchfork	6.1/10[10]
Winnipeg Sun	[7]

Pitchfork wrote: "Easy to dismiss, smirk at, or even hate on the fist listen, nine out of The Snare's ten tracks are grind-and-pause, semi-sultry pairings of exotic keyboard settings and mid-tech beats that exploit their refrains and come weirdly close to the patterns of 'risqué' after-dinner radio pop circa 1999-present."[10] Exclaim! determined that "as an isolated album it comes across as little more than sub-par art pop whose tunes are monotonous and whose lyrics are obtuse."[5] The Gazette considered it "a dark, brooding work which holds together well, but struggles to free itself from its own weight."[9]

The Sunday Herald deemed the album "10 menacing murder ballads, all characterised by ... dulcimer, baritone sax burps and tinkly music-box noises, backed by a Casio-keyboard approximation of the stuttering beats of modern R&B."[11] The Northern Echo called it "a black masterpiece."[12] The Philadelphia Daily News labeled it "a mysterious soundtrack of the mind with R&B, hip-hop and spaghetti western inflections."[13]

AllMusic wrote that "Looper drops their bright playfulness for a sophisticated, darker counterpart which uses jazz, R&B, and trip-hop as its foundation."[8]

Track listing

References

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