The Snake Decides

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = Allmusic

| rev1Score ={{rating|4|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-snake-decides-mw0000696370 |title=Evan Parker: The Snake Decides |last=Couture |first=François |website=AllMusic |access-date=December 21, 2021}}

| rev2 = Penguin Guide to Jazz

| rev2Score = 👑{{rating|4|4}}{{cite book | last1=Cook |first1=Richard |last2=Morton |first2=Brian | title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | publisher=Penguin Books | year=2006 | pages=1022 }}

| rev3 = All About Jazz

| rev3Score ={{rating|5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-snake-decides-evan-parker-psi-review-by-john-eyles |title=Evan Parker: The Snake Decides |last=Eyles |first=John |date=November 14, 2003 |website=All About Jazz |access-date=December 21, 2021}}

}}

The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album one of its rare crown accolades, in addition to featuring it as part of the Core Collection, calling it "a great record," "an essential document of modern music," and "a hyper-subtle document of one of Parker's keynote performances, in which he takes the language experiments of the previous two decades and compresses them into one flowing and involving performance." They also praised Gerzon's engineering skills, calling him "possibly the only man in Britain whose ears were more finely tuned to the highest harmonic levels than Parker's own," and stating that the album "can create the impression that you are actually inside Parker's instrument."

François Couture, writing for AllMusic, commented: "One pictures a mad snake charmer, playing multiple melodies at once to make the snakes stretch into different directions and move in interlocking patterns. In 'Buriden's Ass' and 'Haine's Last Tape,' the number of notes per minute hits a peak. But Parker's music has never been about keeping score. The flurry is necessary to mesmerize the listener, to hypnotize him, to make everything else within earshot fade away. All that remains is this kaleidoscope of multiphonics."

In a review for All About Jazz, John Eyles stated that the album "provides a ready-made excuse to focus on the serpentine qualities of Parker's soprano playing. His relentlessly energetic flurries of notes defy logic or reason, seeming to spiral and to tie themselves in knots and coils... Highly recommended."

Writing for The Guardian, Stewart Lee included The Snake Decides on his list of "Top Five Evan Parker Albums", calling it "A gripping solo set, brilliantly recorded."{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/22/stewart-lee-evan-parker |title=Evan Parker's Musical Utopia |last=Lee |first=Stewart |date=April 22, 2010 |website=The Guardian |access-date=December 21, 2021}}

Matt Micucci of JazzIz included the album in his list of "Five Essential albums of 1986", calling it "arguably the most celebrated of [Parker's] solo saxophone records", and stating that it "gives Parker an opportunity to focus on the serpentine qualities of his playing."{{cite web |url=https://www.jazziz.com/year-by-year-five-essential-albums-of-1986 |title=Year By Year: Five Essential Albums of 1986 |last=Micucci |first=Matt |date=October 23, 2019 |website=JazzIz |access-date=December 21, 2021}}

:All compositions by Evan Parker

1. "The Snake Decides" – 19:56
2. "Leipzig Folly" – 11:42
3. "Buriden's Ass" – 6:29
4. "Haine's Last Tape" – 6:01

• Evan Parker – soprano saxophone

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{{Evan Parker}}

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Category:1988 albums

Category:Incus Records albums

Category:Evan Parker albums

Category:Psi Records albums