Nashville rockers Snooper are back with a highly anticipated new album, Worldwide, and take Wonderland through the tracklist.
Brimming with charm, bold musicality and intelligent vocal performances, Snooper’s second record, Worldwide is a smash hit record that is as modern and mayhem-filled as anything in the current punk market. The group’s latest full-length, having exploded onto the scene with the terrific 2023 project Super Snõõper, this new opus takes the group’s sound to sophisticated and barn-storming new heights, with bigger hooks, broader concepts and braver experimentation.
Below, the band share some in-depth thoughts on the new album in Wonderland’s latest track-by-track.
Listen to the album…
Read the track-by-track…
“Opt Out”
This song is about spam callers and having to “Opt Out” of something you didn’t even sign up for in the first place. A frustrating experience. We tried to mimic that in the song writing. The guitars take turns playing the same riff. One guitar drops out just as the other one begins. Similar to how it feels to get call after call from spammers who just hang up when you answer.
“On Line”
On Line is about creating a version of yourself that only exists online, that you created intentionally. It’s about the control you have over this version of yourself. It’s about fear- particularly the fear of losing this control. This song was re-recorded from our split w/ Prison Affair. John (Congelton) made the drums sound like “March Of The Pigs”.
“Company Car”
CC is about seeking connections with others through possessions and material things. Feeling like you have to have something physical to share with someone else to feel important. It’s about people who develop their personalities around their material possessions.
“Worldwide”
Worldwide is about feeling like your time is being wasted and that the work you’re doing isn’t meaningful. It’s about the constant feeling that your time could be better spent elsewhere and feeling insignificant in a space where you spend most of your time. This was the track that made us know we were ready to record the next album which is why we named the record after it!
“Guard Dog”
This song is about people giving you bad advice and learning to trust yourself instead of seeking validation from others. This song almost didn’t make it on the record but has become one of our absolute favorites from the record. It’s also quickly becoming one of our favorite songs to play live.
”Hologram” ft. Screen Star
Hologram is a song about reflection, which is ironic because it’s the first song not solely written by us (Blair and Connor). Connor was trading demos with our first guitarist, Matt Campbell, who left Snooper to focus on his own project Screen Star, and that back and forth is how Hologram came about. Not only did Matt bring this song into being, but he also wrote an amazing synth track to accompany everything. Shoutout John for the Stooges inspired guitar tone on the solo and—— fun fact—there are 3 different versions of this song that exist but Matt’s synth track is the only part that remained untouched since the beginning.
“Star 69”
Star 69 is about seeking reassurance and calling out to other people only to hear your own voice echoing back. It’s about feedback (figuratively and literally). It’s about how what you put into the world always comes back to you. It was the first demo we did for the LP and was inspired by Sisters Of Mercy, although somehow it ended up sounding more like a Bad Brains riff for the chorus.
“Blockhead”
Blockhead is about being able to control something- no matter how small. When things around you feel out of control, it’s natural to try to regain some sort of control. There is comfort in routine and in order. I notice more and more people (including myself) use phones, video games, etc. as distractions and there is comfort in that. It’s crazy. We are all single players seeking something to control.
“Come Together”
This one was never supposed to end up on the LP. We had done a previous cover of this song after we were rushing to turn in a botched Flock Of Seagulls cover for the GTRRCIII compilation. We were the last band to send in our track so, the night before it was due, we recorded a karaoke version of the song into the 8 Track. We never intended to play the song live, but people keep asking us to play it at shows. Even after we learned it, it still never felt like it was special enough to release. John pushed us to break it up and tweak the way we played our parts, which is how it became this Gang Of Four-covering The Beatles-in the style of Snooper type of song.
“Pom Pom”
Pom Pom is about cheering for yourself, which is how this song made it on the record! We had this demo for a few years and it seemed like it would never be used until we took it in the studio. The original demo sounds completely different and sounds like a lost track from Oh No It’s Devo!, but John helped us turn it into the Jesus & Mary Chain w/ a goodwill drum machine version it is today. This is my (Connor’s) personal favourite from the record because it felt so refreshing to hear a new interpretation of a song I already loved. Two versions are better than one.
“Relay”
Relay is about getting stuck in patterns and loops of thought… The song structure actually came together because I had parked behind Blair the night before. I was recording drums and didn’t have anything beyond the first section written but I really liked the drum beat. As I was recording, she came in and asked me to move my car. I was stoked on the drum take so I built the bridge from the abrupt ending and the last section just came naturally after.
“Subdivision”
Subdivision was also not supposed to make it on the record. Conner Sullivan, the guitarist on this record, really wanted to record this updated version as it had changed a lot since the demo version on the Town Topic EP. On the last day, John (and Conner) convinced us to track it and it’s how we ended up with the Krautrock by way of Chrome version that felt fitting to close out the LP. It also feels like a reflection of living in a subdivision, you’re born, spend years playing with things and wasting time, then end up going “hey wait, where did all the time go? I’ve been scammed!”. Guess you have to flip the record after and figure out how to Opt Out from it all!
