Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It seems typical that the superbly angry, the enraged beauty, that lives and breathes inside one of the most talked about bands, The Sneaky Nixons, should produce a great song with the idea of someone else’s misfortune as its central theme. Maybe nobody else would dare, nobody else would go that far but for The Sneaky Nixons, it’s not about causing upset, it is bringing the very real idea home that there are people out there who just seem to get an absolute kick from the act of Schadenfreude.
There is always something to admire in the world of The Sneaky Nixons, the gleaming eye of punk respect that dares go beyond the pale, the absolute rock fest and furious drive of a live gig and the smack down cool of the recorded single or album that comes with the territory. That is certainly the case with the band’s new single Schadenfreude, a song of great strength, one that dares defiance and the easily puts up with the stares of how dare they from the unnerved and unsettled.
The single is everything you want from The Sneaky Nixons, brash, bold, limitless and caught between the ideals of those who suggest that some subjects are off limits and those who tell them to get on with it and just be superb. Schadenfreude may be an emotion that unsettles some, it is after all a place where the head and heart are odds but it cannot be denied that it makes for a great subject matter to be discussed. Like the reader who empathises too much with the character Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s Misery, Schadenfreude is a necessary evil to find yourself talking about and if takes a band like The Sneaky Nixons to come forth and enlighten the public then so be it.
Bold and brash, pounding in the way that the band do best, this is a single that somehow puts a smile on the face of those who get the point, that there is no need to get upset at the actions of enemies, it is to worry what goes in the heart and the pleasure they receive in the hearts of your friends.
The Sneaky Nixons just keep doing what they do best and the angry punk ethic keeps blossoming on.
Ian D. Hall