SnakeOil’s debut album The Wild Side feels like a trip through a world where reality keeps slipping at the edges. Led by musician Nick Cutrer, the nine-track, 33-minute record draws on the kaleidoscopic spirit of ’60s and ’70s rock, blending psychedelic textures, garage-rock grit, alternative smugness, and folksy tenderness. Recorded to analog tape at Oakland’s Tiny Telephone, the album embraces a warm, colorful sound that leaves room for rough edges and strange ideas to flourish.
“Would You Believe Me If I Told Ya?” sets the tone with thumping beats, a heavy bassline, and plucked electric guitars that drift between melodic shimmer and fuzzy distortion. Cutrer’s sharp-edged vocal carries an undercurrent of angst, giving the song an uneasy energy even when its groove feels inviting. The lyrics unfold like a series of surreal questions with blind men beneath maple skies, angels denied forgiveness, and a cherry-red glow surrounding a cabin suspended above a hill. These dreamlike images start to crack as the reality creeps in with the breakdown of a romance. The recurring invitation to look behind the curtain turns the track into a playful yet unsettling meditation on truth, perception, and the possibility that the world we know is coming undone. It’s psychedelic rock with a suspicious glint in its eye.
Then comes “Amber & Hazel,” which reveals a gentler, more intimate side of SnakeOil. Glistening, glassy guitar notes echo into the opening before a tender vocal slips in, creating the sensation of wandering through a beautiful, half-remembered dream. The lyrics gaze toward the stars and out across the sea, searching for meaning while confronting the quiet exhaustion of love and uncertainty. Its refrain, lamenting how the world has drained the color from someone’s eyes, gives the song a bittersweet emotional center. Where the opener questions reality with restless intensity, this track lets melancholy settle in slowly.
That contrast is part of what makes The Wild Side so appealing. SnakeOil moves between fuzzed-out rock and delicate, reflective songwriting.
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Review by: Naomi Joan