''Splinter'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by English

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

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 article ...

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

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

. 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, and is now also active with his solo project IAMX. ...

on lead vocals, replacing the band's previous singer

Kelli Dayton Kelli Ali, also known as Kelli Dayton (born 30 June 1974), is a British vocalist, who was formerly the lead singer of the trip hop group Sneaker Pimps before going on to a solo career. Career Before Sneaker Pimps, Ali was part of a group called ...

Content

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' 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 studio album by English electronic band Sneaker Pimps. It was first 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 marked ...

'''. 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 music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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 (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tempos ...

". 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 records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

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 a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

; the single "Low Five" reached number 39 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, while "Ten to Twenty" reached number 56. The band performed a live version of the album on Scottish 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 in Japan on 21 May 1997 and in the UK on 16 June 1997. Radiohead self-produced the album with Nigel Godrich, an arrangement they have used for their subsequ ...

''' – 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 almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

'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. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

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

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

' track: "Beaubourg Part 1" (1978)

References

External links

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