These Arms Are Snakes

Tail Swallower And Dove

[4.5/5]

These Arms Are Snakes have mastered the often overlooked art of clever yet succinct songwriting, and Tail Swallower And Dove, the band’s latest (and greatest), plays like a graduate-level course in the discipline. Having already proven their mettle on stage and in the studio with 2006’s equally brilliant Easter, TAAS have put in some serious time where it really counts: The practice space, the living room, the shower or wherever vocalist Steve Snere & Co. formulate their ideas. Tail Swallower And Dove is a torrent of math-rock intricacies, but the tiny droplets of soul never become diluted. Never mistaking tempo or machismo for cunning, and never afraid to crawl into a dark hole to root out bits of textural sustenance, TAAS are all teeth, from tip to tail. (SUICIDE SQUEEZE) Oakland L. Childers