release date: Jun. 1986
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,75]
producer: Felt (recorded by)
label: Creation Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "Song for William S. Harvey" (5 / 5) - 2. "Ancient City Where I Lived" (4 / 5) - 3. "The Seventeenth Century" (4 / 5) - 4. "The Palace" - 5. "Indian Scriptures" - 6. "The Nazca Plain" (4 / 5) - 7. "Jewel Sky" - 8. "Viking Dress" - 9. "Voyage to Illumination" (4 / 5) - 10. "Sapphire Mansions"
5th studio album by Felt and the first to be released on Creation Records after leaving Cherry Red. Most likely the album production was handled by the band, but no producer credits were filed. It wasn't the first album, I heard with the band, but it's one of my all time favorites of the mid 1980s. The downside is the short playing time of a total of only 19 min. It was released as the first album on the new label but is hardly more than an ep. The band's previous release Ignite the Seven Cannons (1985) was another great album but with a very different style. Throughout their career and spanning the 10 albums (band leader) Lawrence had declared they would release in all - no more, no less [!] - the band may be associated with jangle pop. The style is more linked with the 1960s folk rock and country rock artists closely related to The Byrds 12-string guitar sound than to the more contemporary post-punk bands evolving from / influenced by punk rock and new wave. However, the '85 release was their most dream pop ("over"-)produced album to date. One reason was that it was produced by Cocteau Twins founder Robin Guthrie, which is quite evident, and also features that bands' lead vocalist, Elizabeth Fraser on several tracks, only adding to the dream pop sound, but Felt also worked with the band's lead guitarist, Maurice Deebank for the last time. His guitar sound helped shaping their sound on their first 4 albums, and now with Deebank gone the band understood to keep their special jangle pop sound but simultaneously focusing much more on the keyboardist, Martin Duffy's Hammond organ. Although, this album only lasts 19 min., it still contains 10 tracks like any conventional pop album, but the single tracks only last from 1:00 to 2:49 min. and they are all instrumental tracks. Despite my interest in listening to energetic power pop and dark post-punk in the mid 1980s, I simply loved this album for its serene simplicity. I remember having found the album at the library and copied it to a cassette. A few years later, on a warm and wonderful summer of '90, I rode on my bicycle 300 km to visit my older brother and I had handpicked a bunch of cassettes to play on my walk-man for the ride. I had this album on the same cassette as their '85 album Ignite... and great '86 album Forever Breathes the Lonely Word and that was one of the most played cassettes on that trip along with Love Is Hell by Kitchens of Distinctions. Whenever I listen to Let the Snakes... today, I always get the feel of the sun shining bright on a clear blue sky, a scent of summer with warm breezes and images of a beautiful landscape just to pass through, which in the end, makes it hard not to like.
[ allmusic.com reviewer Greg Adams didn''t like it and hands it 3 / 5 stars ]
