Just when I think it's close enough to the end of the year to write out my favorite albums, Snowing goes and drops a a last minute power house. Snowing is one of those bands that knows how to package extremely personal, intoxicating content about being intoxicated and revealing extremely personal sides of oneself in sprawling, catchy tunes. Much like Maps and Atlases, bass player and vocalist John Galm's nasally voice and unconventional singing style walk such a fine line of being irritating and genius, that once you realize how good they are you don't want to ever hear anyone else sing you songs. One gets the feeling when listening to I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted that the same demons John was facing in their debut ep Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit, his drinking, insecurity, his fear of ending up like his deceased father, and his issues with the fairer sex, are still in full swing. However, this time around he seems much more willing to open up and face everything head on, if nothing else for the therapeutic qualities of laying it all out on the table. Something that I find nice about Snowing is that they drink. I know this is a stupid reason to like a band, but in social situations so many bands in the scene Snowing is apart of flaunt the fact that they drink a lot of root beer. John is so open with his drunken bitterness and personal conflict that rather than alienating listeners he becomes such painfully relatable. Tracks like "Malk It," "I Think We're In Minsk" and "So I Shotgunned a Beer and Went Back to Bed," feature some of the bands best writing to date, angular guitar work, with steady and full drums, and wonderful catchy, honest, sing along vocals. The record plays pretty well, and then you come to track ten, a little track called "Damp Feathers" a track that is so good and such a departure from the rest of the record that i literally had to look to make sure that the album wasn't over and I was listening to the next band on iTunes. Soft, fuzzy guitars and steady drums as John puts more melody and less strain on his voice with very pleasant results. This is the kind of record that makes you so excited for what these guys are going to do next. It's not a perfect record but overall I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted is a giant step forward from their debut and a record i'm sure i'll be listening to much more than the 53 times i've listened to it since the five days its been out.
-YtWt
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