There's a rumor floating around in the Looper press release for The Snare, stating that you can't fully understand the album without first reading the artist's book The Peacock Manifesto. This is only slightly true; it becomes clear by the end of the first track that the content initiates a contemporary murder plot that concerns a man, Peacock Johnson, and his lover, who remains nameless. However, the music and lyrics can exist independently of each other, simply because both are created and produced with an ingenious flair.

Looper, aka Stuart David, aka former Belle and Sebastian songwriter and bassist, blends jazzy and slightly creepy vocal intonations with an eclectic electronica extravaganza. Because David doesn't really vary his tone much, maintaining low, breathy vocals throughout the album. And with the slow beat, it's hard to tell where one song ends and the next one begins. His lyrics, however, make up for what's missing.

The first track, "The Snare," introduces us to the inevitable murder by setting the scene of a man caught between his desire to kill and his moral duty to love. "Sugarcane" portrays the raging obsession and jealousy Peacock has for his lover: She's making me remember who I am/On the midnight train through the driving rain/I see the filthy moon looking in her room/He lays his light down on her bed." The following track, "New York Snow" uncovers the location of the dead body and Peacock's slight intimidation resulting from the potential discovery of his plot.

The next three songs, "Driving Myself Crazy," "Lover's Leap," and "Good Girls," initiate another perspective about the murderer; what is he really about and how does he gauge his self-worth? After 33 minutes of libidinous listening pleasure, David ends with "Fucking Around," a track that is completely removed from the status quo of the album. It also accents what's left with humor, as Peacock instructs his lover to relax and chill out, and not to stress the presence of the gun, because "we're just fucking around." How charismatic.

Yasmin Tabi