Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is for many a very real fear, going all out to do something impressive, an amazing thing in which your family or your friends might be inspired to emulate or even talk about down the pub for years to come and always starting with the phrase, “Do you remember when…?” However, Returning Home A Failure is something we never like to contemplate, yes we try our best but sometimes, as the detractors are apt to remind us with knives sharpened, our best is just not good enough.

For The Sneaky Nixons, this new single is a riot, a spell of anarchy wrapped up in the precision of a tantalising sound and one that is rich in venom, voice and truth. This may be nothing new for the band, the solid state of awareness they bring to the music table, especially in their home town of Liverpool, is always sincere, always frantic and full of major explosions that never feel anything but relentless in their impact. It is in this honesty that the band deserve the respect they play for, a sense of security in a world that demands so much but is hard pressed, uncommunicative, in its praise for anything that strays outside the accepted boundary.

Whilst riotous in its intent, the delivery is so meaningful that it could be questioned just exactly what are the band aiming for, it then hits you like a sucker punch in a boxing ring where the opponent has a horseshoe inside their glove. This is the paradox of existence, we all want a life which is plain sailing, with a rise to the top in our chosen profession or interest, to be taken seriously and consulted with an expert eye, yet blind as we are, we never see that we are only marking time, that without being completely selfish, so entwined in our own life, we don’t stand a chance; we just have to accept that having tried is really a massive success after all.

Returning Home A Failure, it is never a mark of disappointment to know that you tried, that you found a way to even have one notch further than zero, for The Sneaky Nixons, this is the message they implore, the communication of truth and it is marvellous to hear.

Ian D. Hall