Sitting on Snaps
{{Infobox album
| name = Sitting on Snaps
| type = studio
| artist = Mecca Normal
| cover = Sitting on Snaps.jpg
| alt =
| released = 1995
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| genre =
| length =
| label = Matador{{cite web |title=Mecca Normal |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/mecca-normal/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=6 August 2021}}
| producer =
| prev_title = Flood Plain
| prev_year = 1993
| next_title = The Eagle and the Poodle
| next_year = 1996
}}
Sitting on Snaps is an album by the Canadian musical duo Mecca Normal, released in 1995.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mecca-normal-mn0000868982/biography|title=Mecca Normal Biography & History|website=AllMusic}}{{cite magazine |last1=Jennings |first1=Dave |title=Sitting on Snaps by Mecca Normal |magazine=Melody Maker |date=Apr 15, 1995 |volume=72 |issue=15 |page=38}} The duo supported the album with a North American tour.{{cite news |last1=Monk |first1=Katherine |title=Notes from a Crowded Underground |work=The Vancouver Sun |date=6 Jul 1995 |page=C8}}
Production
Calvin Johnson produced a few of the album's tracks.{{cite magazine |last1=Crist |first1=Renee |title=Reviews |magazine=Option |date=July 1995 |issue=63 |page=121}} 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.{{cite magazine |last1=Wolk |first1=Douglas |title=Reviews |magazine=CMJ New Music Monthly |date=Feb 1995 |issue=18 |page=38}} 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.{{cite magazine |last1=Vincentelli |first1=Elisabeth |title=Reviews |magazine=Option |date=July 1996 |issue=69 |pages=117, 119}}
Critical reception
{{album ratings
|rev1 = AllMusic
|rev1score = {{rating|3|5}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sitting-on-snaps-mw0000122258|title=Sitting on Snaps|website=AllMusic}}
|rev2 = Chicago Tribune
|rev2score = {{rating|2|4}}{{cite news |last1=Ryan |first1=Mo |title=Recordings |work=Chicago Tribune |date=23 Feb 1995 |page=5.8}}
|rev3 = Robert Christgau
|rev3score = {{Rating-Christgau|dud}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=3329&name=Mecca+Normal|title=Robert Christgau Mecca Normal|website=www.robertchristgau.com}}
|rev4 = Rolling Stone
|rev4score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |last1=McDonnell |first1=Evelyn |title=Recordings — Sitting on Snaps by Mecca Normal |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=Apr 20, 1995 |issue=706 |page=73}}
}}
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." 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."{{cite news |last1=Ali |first1=Lorraine |title=Mecca Minimal |work=Los Angeles Times |date=11 Feb 1995 |page=F8}} LA Weekly noted the "jolting sonic experiments with the ante upped by occasional melodic acoustic solos."{{cite news |last1=Scribner |first1=Sara |title=Mecca Normal Sitting on Snaps |work=LA Weekly |date=9 Feb 1995 |page=79}}
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."{{cite news |last1=Terrell |first1=Steve |title=Sitting on Snaps by Mecca Normal |work=The Santa Fe New Mexican |date=21 Apr 1995 |department=Pasatiempo |page=18}} The Record opined that Smith and Lester "conjure some nice mood pieces in 'Trapped Inside Your Heart', 'Cyclone', and 'Vacant Night Sky'."{{cite news |last1=Weiler |first1=Derek |title=Mecca Normal Sitting on Snaps Matador |work=The Record |date=2 Mar 1995 |page=D14}} SF Weekly wrote that "Smith's lyrics move from the overtly political to the elliptical; accordingly, her droning vocals occupy prettier soundscapes."{{cite news |title=Super Normal |url=https://www.sfweekly.com/calendar/nightday-120/ |work=SF Weekly |access-date=6 August 2021}}
Option deemed the album "highly unlistenable." 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."
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing =
| title1 = Vacant Night Sky
| length1 =
| title2 = Something to be Said
| length2 =
| title3 = Crimson Dragnet
| length3 =
| title4 = Frozen Rain
| length4 =
| title5 = Only Heat
| length5 =
| title6 = Trapped Inside Your Heart
| length6 =
| title7 = Alibi
| length7 =
| title8 = Pamela Makes Waves
| length8 =
| title9 = Beppo's Room
| length9 =
| title10 = Cyclone
| length10 =
| title11 = Gravity Believes
| length11 =
| total_length =
}}
Personnel
- David Lester - guitar
- Jean Smith - vocals
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}