Widespread Panic – Snake Oil King (Colored LP Vinyl)
Review
Widespread Panic kept things tight on their first studio album in nearly a decade - giving just six tracks and 33 minutes of music to Snake Oil King.
Split evenly between old-school grinders and new-school ballads, the LP finds the band showing off its rough edges on such cuts as “Little by Little”and smoothing them out on “We Walk Each Other Home,” “Life as a Tree” and “Cosmic Confidante” - songs only an older and wiser Widespread Panic could produce, pondering the perspective age gives to the other stuff it takes away.
“Tree,” a country-leaning song with producer John Keane tucking banjo and steel into the mix, is King’s standout track one of the most thoughtful in Panic’s songbook.
“We’ll make our own movies and star in them too/it takes two to tango and billions for the big dance/we’re lucky if we find just some of them who/take our souls for who they are and in that take us, too,” John Bell sings.
As it tends to go with the Panics, the songs on Snake Oil King are likely to find their strongest readings on stage. But the album also demonstrates the band is not altogether adrift in the studio.
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— Kristopher Weiss, jambands.com
Product Details
Widespread Panic has spent four decades building one of the most devoted live followings in American music, and *Snake Oil King* marks their first studio album since 2010's *Dirty Side Down*, a gap that only sharpened the hunger on both sides. Recorded with the band's core lineup anchored by John Bell's unmistakable voice and Jimmy Herring's guitar work, it's a reminder that Athens, Georgia never stopped producing something worth paying attention to.
Tracklist
Side A
A1. Little By Little (6:07)
A2. We Walk Each Other Home (5:23)
A3. Tackle Box Hero (7:46)
Side B
B1. Life As A Tree (4:19)
B2. Cosmic Confidante (6:02)
B3. Small Town (4:18)
UPC: 781057003014
Label: Widespread Records
Release Date: 6.14.24
Format: LP Vinyl