Cities by sknob

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Cities – sknob EP review by @babumenos

Review by @babumenos

Even the biggest things start small. In this case, with a tenderly strung ukulele that evokes a South American mood (or images of Audrey Hepburn gazing longingly out of a rain-covered window, if that’s more your cup of tea). A gentle voice enters the scene, telling a seemingly mundane story of a He, a solitary introvert living in the country who ‘really hates to work’ and a She, an urban extrovert and social butterfly who ‘spends her life at work’. Throughout the She part, tiny changes in the musical arrangement (a single-note guitar lick, to be precise) very efficiently begin to make big differences. (This efficiency is one of many details that makes sknob’s music stand out.)

In come a drummer, another guitarist, a bassist, a little later an organ and piano player — all of whom are the same person who opened this track singer-songwriterish: sknob is a multi-instrumentalist whose credits read, plain and simple, ‘Written, performed and produced by sknob.’ And whose stylistic roots spread far and wide, as we’ll see in a minute. This particular song, ‘Entangled’, has Beatlesque, Brian-Wilson-esque, David-Bowie-esque vibes with hints of Randy Newman, chanson, and campfire.

Back to the story: He and She, despite all differences, are a couple, and a happy one at that, because ‘Neither wants the other to go against their grain’. Yet still, the final thought is ushered over the same sparse ukulele-voice arrangement the song began with: ‘Will their love survive?’

Having recovered from this deep dive into both musical multitude and emotional journey, an electric guitar riff straight out of a fun-punk song takes us by the hand … — no, actually, it kicks us in the ass, and off we go into a world between NY’s CBGB, Swindon’s XTC, throwing in a reggae dub guitar, some old Genesis mellotron strings, an organ, a bouncing little synth, a glockenspiel, and one of the funniest lines in recent days: ‘Let me off the planet!’ Irony? Possibly. Lots of fun? Certainly! If you throw a party and want to lead from 80s pop punk to today, put ‘Let Me Off’ on. It’ll make your crowd jump for sure.

OK, wiping off the sweat, taking a few deep breaths: here cometh a slow and solemn ballad. Piano chords played in straight eighth notes never fail to be intriguing and captivating, all the more so when their foundation is a similarly straight rhythm group of melancholic drums, a bone-dry bass and an equally dry guitar chord supporting every snare beat. What’s rare is an acoustic guitar doubling the vocal lines, but what a beauty! Oh, and strings enter, another acoustic guitar that strums the chords, and … it is quite impossible, I’m afraid, to do the chord progressions any justice! The further this chanson wanders, the more surprises it holds.

There are even traces of French impressionist composers like Debussy, Ravel, and their inspiration Eric Satie to be found. In ‘Bercée d’illusions’, as the title might suggest, sknob sings in French. A language with greater possibilities to express the mysterious, as it seems; the first lines of the lyrics read, ‘Elle a coulé le champ des possibles sous une chape de béton; Elle a noyé la lune et la nuit dans une mer de néon’ which Deepl translates to ‘She poured the field of possibilities under a concrete screed; She drowned moon and night in a sea of neon’. The writer of this review admits that his lack of knowledge saddens him. At this point, we’ll have to leave it at great admiration for the beauty of both the language and the composition.

While the remnants of this très français form of saudade still linger on, the next (and last) song turns yet another page. Dry your eyes and take to the streets, this one is for you, city dwellers! The title track of this EP combines drum machine, bass synth, various keyboard sounds including a piano, electric and acoustic guitars, and traffic noise to a — well, how do you call the opposite of an homage? ‘Cities insulate us from the damage we’ve done’ sknob sings in an almost annoyed manner, and a little later, ‘Cities spell disaster; Cities spell doom’. Oh, and while all this may sound overly serious and severe, ‘Cities’ is still loads of fun!

All four songs have been released earlier, between February 2024 and March 2025, but sknob made them an EP some three weeks ago, and it’s amazing how putting them all together results in a bigger story being told. A story of the connection between the most personal and the most public, the outer influences and their inner echoes. Held together by love, loyalty, and a certain lightness. Being poetic, political, snarky, sincere, and funny at the same time is not an easy feat, neither is travelling through genres while still remaining consistent and recognisable. Kudos to sknob who manages all that apparently effortlessly.

Visit sknob.fr

[Read in full on NHAM]