Sneaker Pimps Album: “Splinter [Germany]”

Kelli's gone. So what? With this album, it's hard to believe she even was with them. Besides, Chris, Liam, and journalist not in the band Ian Pickering wrote all the songs (Kelli wrote 3 or 4 b-sides). Chris was going to sing on Becoming X in the first place! This album starts out with Half Life, one of my favorite songs on this CD. It's a cross between Goth and Trip-Hop, and Chris' voice is dark and mysterious. Then comes Low Five, the lead single, which prompted me to get this album. This song got to the top 40 in the UK (for once a good song goes to the Top 40). It's an song about corporate anthems like high five, peace sign, and smiley face that can't pick him up, so he's like, "give me a 'low five.'" A cool, rockish song. Lightning Field has a cool drum beat (listen to the first interlude), a girl singing gospel-like backup vocals, and Chris pleading for someone to "strike me down". Curl is a depressed (most of the songs are), rockish type of song, that's good as well. Destroying Angel is another one of my faves, it's slower and mostly acoustic guitar, but you have to read the lyrics. It's an awesome song. Empathy is acoustics, samples from Kronos Quartet, and Chris singing. This song is very fragile and emotional. Beautiful. Superbug is the hardest rocking song on the CD, and one of my favorites (it's my anthem at this point in time). Very cool song. Then it slows down and gets more depressing with Flowers And Silence. It could make a few people cry. Cute Sushi Lunches is strange, but really cool and mysterious. The rhythm is tricky and hard to follow, and it'll throw you off. Ten to Twenty, the latest single, is another of my favorites, a very Becoming X like song, but with more guitars. Splinter is a cool song, mostly acoustic w/ drums, a bit strange in the chorus. Wife by Two Thousand is my favorite song on the CD, and my favorite song of all-time! Yeah, it doesn't have the darkness of Half Life, or the rockishness of Superbug, but read the lyrics. That's what makes this song special. It's slower, but beautiful. The girl on backup vocals has pretty voice, the song is kind of acoustic, and the chorus is beautiful. The beginning is interesting, I don't care if it's backwards, the girl on backups has a great voice! The coda is a strange, yet nice way to end the CD, with the people walking, and someone whistling the chorus. All in all, a splendid album, my favorite of all time in fact. Standout tracks: Half Life, Destroying Angel, Wife by Two Thousand.

Sneaker Pimps. A growing band which debuted in 1996 with the acclaimed album "Becoming X". Unfortunately , Kelli Ali left the band and vocals were taken over by guitarist Chris Corner, the original writer of the songs. Very diffrent than "Becoming X" in a positive way, "Splinter" is much more of acoustic guitar and rock than electronica, which was seen on "Becoming X". This is not something to look down to. Now with Chris in the lead this gives "Splinter" a cleaner, fresher, and crisp sound. He gives each track vocals of sexuality and power. The lyrics are beautiful and touching. The album's standout track is DEFINITELY "Destroying Angel", but everyone has their favorites. Each song leaves you with a feeling you cant explain and haunts you. This album as well as other albums from sneaker pimps has touched my life vastly. I relate to the music so easily and felt like i wrote the lyrics myself. They have now become my favorite band of all time with this album (you should also check out the newer album "Bloodsport"). If you love acoustic guitar and rock-type anguish, this is not an album to be missed!

Buy this now!!You will not be dissapointed in the least.That is guarenteed and assured!

For a long time, I had absolutely no idea that the Sneaker Pimps even had an album besides Becoming X. And I was never a very big Sneaker Pimps fan. I always thought that they were just okay..

And then I happened upon Splinter. I didn't think that I'd like it very much, with the loss of female vocals, because I always thought that it was her voice that made me like them. But I was wrong. Splinter is an amazing album. Better than amazing. I was hooked from the very first song, the very first listen. And I discover more reasons to like it with every listen.

If you're expecting another Becoming X, then you're expecting the total opposite of what you'll get with Splinter. It's as if it's from a completely different planet. Definately one of my new favorites. It's a shame that the Sneaker Pimps are so under-rated. But hey, that leaves more for me, right?

I heard Becoming X on a friend's cd - I thought it was great, so I looked around for more Pimps cds. I found Splinter. I thought it may be different - it was. It's a much more thoughtful album. It's heavier, 'rockier', darker and much more beautiful. It took me about five listens, to decide whether or not I liked the album, but I think that that, is one of its major qualities. Every time I listen to it, I get more out of it and like it more. It deserves much more recognition than it gets. It is a great album, with some weird moments. It is definitely not a sequel to Becoming X, but it is a great album in its own right. THe Sneaker Pimps, for me, are 'up there' with Radiohead as being able to create interesting music that is often complicated, takes thinking about, and is often creepingly beautiful. I hope thieir next album Bloodsport is as good.

I wish I had words on the fly to describe the impotance of this album in the late 90s for an American kid who had to import it on CD just to listen to it..

But I did, and 7 years later I imported it on vinyl from Scotland and I was refreshed by the timelessnes of the sound. This is essential listening. It gives me images of a Blade Runner-esque Neo-Tokyo due to the constant use of reverb, dry beats, vibrant chimes and hidden noises in a GLORIOUS production (if experienced in its fullest soundstage). It is bright, but gritty; songs such as 'Lightning Field' and 'Destroying Angel' have a lurking quality to them... They provide an impressionstic narrative of someone in a bleak future who is either crying in their soy-kaf due to love issues, or about to get what they have coming to them.... and ready to die beacause they are too busy within themselves to care.

This is the sound of what the world would've become in an age of true globalization/corporate dominance and we went through a technological bronze age rather than jump so drastically in the past decade:: an age whre technology could've been cruder before it became better and rebels evolved to take on renegade jobs sending packages personally (due to the government hold on anything wired, of course) or any job requiring one strapping oneself to an ATM or a specific corporation terminal with a phone jack-wire attached to their neck!

(ahhh the joys of cyberpunk LOST thanks to the past 25 years)

This album is more important than most will know.. hell the UK know it. They remastered it in 200 Gram numbered LPs.