REVIEW: Snooper - Worldwide

If you’ve ever found yourself on the streets of Tokyo, you undoubtedly passed by the energetic madness that is a multi-story arcade. Floors loaded with rows of garishly flashing machines and brightly lit surfaces covered with kawaii cartoons and neon, awash with the never-ending din of electronic pings, boings and ball-bearing-clatters. The size and scale of its sensory overload may be hard to imagine, but listening to SNOOPER’s new LP Worldwide should help to get you there.

Propelled out of the Nashville DIY scene, SNOOPER’s popularity has grown swiftly from its inception during the pandemic. The brainchild of BLAIR TRAMEL and CONNOR CUMMIN, who unintentionally birthed this kitschy-art-punk band by drawing on a zingy collage of references and experimentations. Their freeform associations encapsulate them within the ‘egg punk’ sub-genre that emanates out from America’s post-punk DIY scenes. The name was coined via the beloved underground band, THE CONEHEADS, who in turn were named after the early 90s sci-fi comedy film. The egg punk style was further cemented after a hand drawn meme quite literally illustrated its position on the punk axis: Egg punk (cartoonish, bright, saccarine) across from chain punk (studs, monochrome, leather). You get the idea! 

Having a reputation for outlandish live shows, filled with handmade props and puppets, this latest release embodies the same innovative and off-beat style from which they have built a solid fanbase. This time, however, the production delivers something a little more polished for our ears. Working for the first time with a producer, Worldwide was recorded in LA with JOHN CONGLETON (ST. VINCENT, SHARON VAN ETTEN, ANGEL OLSEN) and with additional members in bassist HAPPY HAUGEN, drummer BRAD BARTEAU, and guitarist CONNER SULLIVAN. The result is a clean but heaped on, sort of noise, giving space for the various layers of each song, but still capturing the discombobulated lo-fi edge that has defined them.

Their recently released Guard Dog is a super fast bop, with some punchy hooks and psychedelic dimension shifts throughout. Spacey samples and processing on the vocals and guitars push this further than your standard pop-punk hit. Guard Dog barks out the lyrics ‘Sometimes there's too much to say, know it won’t come out the right way. Think, think AND make it go away, what do I want to convey’. Expressing perhaps an oversaturation of our online identities? Or is it maybe an ode to neuro-divergence? It’s really quite hard to know, as their lyrics seem almost as irreverent as the collaged aesthetics of their visuals.

From here, it feels like the album comes into its own, with the tracks becoming more dynamic and fleshed out. Hologram is full of retro samples and a cool synthy post-punk vibe. Its quick changing effects gives it an air of the Jetsons jamming with KRAFTWERK in the basement of CBGB’s. ‘Star 69’ is a jump around the room track, with an echo of indie electro samples and beats that have us recalling THE GO! TEAM’s moment in the sun. Throughout most of the record, vocals are kept fairly consistently clean, acting as an anchor to the brain-frying jumble of distorted instruments.

Trying to take this all in via your laptop, is a terrible mistake, it requires the close up clarity from a pair of headphones to begin to comb through the songs. Initially the album feels a little repetitive and surface at points, but the more you listen and explore, the more you get back. The nuances start to buff up to a high gloss and every listen brings something new to the fore. There is a lot to be said for listening on repeat for the sake of a review. So with homage to the days when you would listen to a record relentlessly, until you could afford another, familiarity is key.

Come Together is a highlight of the album. A neat and snappy bootleg of THE BEATLES chorus, chopped up and cranked up into a DEVO style catchy hook. Pom Pom is a song about cheerleading, but with the tongue in cheek exaggeration of a John Waters film. Subdivision is the final track and there’s a noticeably slower tempo and, dare we say, a softer feel. But not really, it's just slightly different mastering that feels intentional for a finale. The lyrics are slightly more direct than much of the rest of the album, with a poke at societal shifts and expectations - "Sanity starts to thin, structure is a safety pin". 

There's a fun eccentric escapism listening to Worldwide and to embodying SNOOPER’s mix of high-octane noise and outsider spirit. It’s an universe with a well worn finish, slightly down at heel, but this makes all the technicolour sheen of it feel tangible and real enough for us to be able to blend together with it effortlessly.

Score: 7/10

Worldwide was released on October 3rd 2025.

Words: Alana Madden

Photos: Snooper