Snare [Audio CD] Looper

Started primarily as a multimedia project by Belle and Sebastian bassist Stuart David, over the course of three albums Looper has evolved into something that is only now beginning to resemble a proper band. The Snare is certainly the outfit's most focused collection yet, doing away with the bubbly, ambient doodles of 1999's Up a Tree and 2000's The Geometrid in favor of a bare-bones soundtrack feel. A slight Burt Bacharach vibe runs through songs like "Lover's Leap" and "F***ing Around," but this is distinctly dark stuff. Punctuated by sqwaking saxophones, delicately plucked strings, and twitchy lo-fi beats, it's kind of like Air without the B-movie naïveté. For those who like that kind of thing. --Aidin Vaziri