release date: 1995
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Karmic Hit - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Jack Frost Blues" - 5. "You Don't Know" - 6. "Weightless and Wild" - 8. "Cousin / Angel"
2nd studio album by the duo-project Jack Frost consisting of Steve Kilbey (of The Church) and Grant McLennan (formerly The Go-Betweens) following three years after the self-titled debut. The project had lived on for a short period of time in '93 after which the two members went back to their own material. Since then, McLennan released his double album Horsebreaker Star (Dec. '94) and Kilbey has only just been released from the label Arista after the unsuccesful Somewhere Anytime (May '94) by The Church. So in early '95 the two found time to revive their common project. And very much to the same procedure as they launched with the debut, they didn't spend hours in writing and composing songs but more or less brought up ideas and recorded tracks in the studio - much according to the spontaneous songwriting and composing approach utilised by Kilbey at this point of his career. The duo has written and composed 13 tracks and they are assisted by Kilbey's brother Russell credited on organ, backing vocals and as sound engineer, and together with drummer Tim Powles of The Church they are the performing musicians on the album.
Compared to the debut, this is a looser type of album and it ultimately appears as a more incoherent whole. Gone are the jangle-pop and indie pop bits and pieces from the debut, which also pointed in a bunch of directions, but instead of showcasing diferent styles for individual tracks, Snow Job is mostly one huge mix of styles carrying stronger traits of the solo works by Kilbey, and it's simply difficult to sense a presence of and contributions from McLennan. Both McLennan and Kilbey were at this point using heavy drugs, and several songs may refer to their experiences with drugs, e.g. "Aviatrix", "Running From the Body", "Weightless and Wild" and "Haze".
Much like the debut, the album didn't attract much attention, and the project was soon put to a halt.
McLennan produced and played guitar on his sister, Sally McLennan's self-titled and only album from '96 (also with partecipation of Tim Powles and Russell Kilbey) before continuing his solo career and initiating what would result in his fourth and final solo album In Your Bright Ray (1997). Steve Kilbey also returned to his solo career but also began writing songs for the upcoming ninth studio album by The Church, Magician Among the Spirits (1997).
Not recommended.
