''Splinter'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by English

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

band

Sneaker Pimps Sneaker Pimps are an English electronic music band, formed in Hartlepool in 1994. They are best known for their debut album, '' Becoming X'' (1996), and its singles " 6 Underground" and " Spin Spin Sugar". The band takes its name from an articl ...

, released on 25 October 1999 through record labels Clean Up and

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

. It was the first album to feature founding member and principal songwriter

Chris Corner Christopher Anthony Corner (born 23 January 1974) is an English record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer and video artist. He was a founding member of the band Sneaker Pimps alongside Liam Howe, and is now active with his sol ...

on lead vocals, replacing the band's previous singer Kelli Ali.

Content

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' described ''Splinter'' as "a staunch refusal to cash in whatsoever on previous fame" and "the band's hangover after the long night of success brought by debut '''

Becoming X ''Becoming X'' is the debut album by English electronic music, electronic band Sneaker Pimps. It was released on 19 August 1996 in the United Kingdom by Clean Up Records and on 25 February 1997 in the United States by Virgin Records. The album ma ...

'''. It’s faintly ugly and always a breath away from self-destruction, the vision of a band who've renounced smiling at people they hate and wrestled their collective soul back from the devil."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described the album's musical style as "full of trancey, edgy psychedelia, interspersed with moments of blistering rock" and "an intricate album of

trip-hop Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental var ...

". Songs recorded during the album sessions but not included on the album are "Diving" and "Unattach", which were included as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition and as

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

s on certain editions of the "Low Five" single, as well as "Virgin" and "Perfect One", B-sides to editions of the "Ten to Twenty" single.

Release

''Splinter'' was released on 29 October 1999 in the UK, Japan and Europe, through record labels Clean Up and Virgin. ''Splinter'' was not released in the United States, unlike the group's other two albums. Two singles were released from the album: "Low Five" and "Ten to Twenty". The album reached number 80 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

; the single "Low Five" reached number 39 on the UK Singles Chart, while "Ten to Twenty" reached number 56. The band performed a live version of the album on

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

TV show ''Boxed Set'' in 2000.

Reception

''NME'' was largely favourable towards the album, singling out Chris Corner's lyrics for praise: "His abstract punctuation-free lyrics have the same bleak power as '''

OK Computer ''OK Computer'' is the third studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 21 May 1997. With their producer, Nigel Godrich, Radiohead recorded most of ''OK Computer'' in their rehearsal space in Oxfordshire and the historic m ...

''' – strangely meaningful without saying anything", and calling ''Splinter'' "as compelling as it is claustrophobic". AllMusic, despite giving it a mediocre rating, described it as "a superb disc", "every bit as original as any of their contemporaries" as well as "pleasantly low-key and occasionally brilliant."

Track listing

# "Half Life" # "Low Five" # "Lightning Field" # "Curl" # "Destroying Angel" # "Empathy" # "Superbug" # "Flowers and Silence" # "Cute Sushi Lunches" # "Ten to Twenty" # "Splinter" # "Wife by Two Thousand" # "Diving" (Japanese bonus track) # "Unattach (Japanese bonus track)

Samples

* "Half Life" sampled Scott Walker's track: "It's Raining Today" (1969) * "Empathy" sampled both

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

's tracks: "Uleg-Khem" and "Laengdans Efter Byfans Mats" (1997) and Cabaret Voltaire's track: "Premonition" (1980) * "Superbug" sampled Dashiell Hedayat's track: "Cielo Drive/17" (1971) * "Flowers and Silence" sampled Scott Walker's track: "Big Louise" (1969) * "Cute Sushi Lunches" sampled both

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...

's track: "Brilliant Trees" (1984) and

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

' track: "Beaubourg Part 1" (1978)

References

External links

*
Splinter at Sneaker Pimps Legacy
{{Sneaker Pimps 1999 albums Sneaker Pimps albums Art pop albums