The Sneetches

Form Of Play: A Retrospective

OMNIVORE. CD/DL Spiffy celebration of the Alan McGee-favoured San Francisco-based popsters. “We were peddling pop in the face of grunge,” says former Sneetches bassist Alec Palao in his erudite liner notes. That didn’t put off Alan McGee, who issued their 1989 album Sometimes That’s All We Have on Creation Records. The Sneetches were based in San Francisco. Two of the quartet were locals: songwriter/guitarists Mike Levy and Matt Carges. Palao – later Grammy nominated for his work with reissues – was an ex-pat Brit, as was drummer Daniel Swan, formerly of Bristol punk band The Cortinas. With fully formed demos and a pair of live tracks, Form Of Play is more than a best-of dedicated to this square-peg band, one inspired by, at times, The Left Banke, The Monochrome Set, XTC and The Zombies. Internationalist thinking-cap pop at its best. From whenever or wherever.