Track Listing

1. Low Place Like Home
2. Tesko Suicide
3. 6 Underground
4. Becoming X
5. Spin Spin Sugar
6. Post-Modern Sleaze
7. Waterbaby
8. Roll On
9. Wasted Early Sunday Morning
10. Walking Zero
11. How Do
12. 6 Underground [Nellee Hooper Edit]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17102 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
English version featuring different cover art.

Amazon.com
The U.K.-based Sneaker Pimps combine standard rock guitar parts with trip-hop beats and clear white-soul vocals, and, when strumming an acoustic guitar (as on the first single, "6 Underground"), the trio is virtually indistinguishable from Luscious Jackson. While using electronica's signifiers--jungle's rattle, trip-hop's dark churn, ambient's synth washes, hip-hop's samples--Sneaker Pimps never stray far from the comfy world of the pop song. Becoming X's opener, "Low Place Like Home," is only one step from Alanis, while the rousing closer is as breathy and sunny as the Cardigans. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews

A hint at what could have been.
This is a great album -- no doubt about it. Their music was dark and subversively sensual. In my opinion, it's a very different "feel" than either the Cardigans or Alanis Morissette. In fact, the Editorial Review above is a bit laughable. Anyway, the Sneaker Pimps mixed alternative, experimental rock with trip hop into what I like to call trance rock. The breathtaking spatial precision of the production and engineering is evidence of Howe and Corner's obsession with the psychoacoustics of stereo sound and room reflections. Becoming X is very unique in its atmospheres, but tends towards the subtle, minimalist side of things. Chris Corner, for instance, initially poked fun at the Nellee Hooper version of Six Underground as being too glossy and commercially oriented. Sorry Chris, but this is not "commercially oriented" music; I'd call Madonna and the Backstreet Boys commercial, not this. Becoming X has a great basic sound and structure to it, and I think Nellee Hooper could have been used to help produce and mix all of their future material to perfect results. If this album had been totally remixed by Mr. Hooper, it'd be an absolute masterpiece. Having songs "kicked-in in all the right places" is what music is about, not the lack thereof. The boys of the band gradually began learning this, and their later, lushly produced remixes and b-sides show it. Kelli was also taking on more songwriting duties as well as giving more production advice. Eventually, the band developed on their own into what Nellee Hooper could have instantly brought them to. Everything seemed to be progressing gorgeously, as evidenced by the track Velvet Divorce, then ZAP! The boys got overly paranoid about what they thought was a generic "2 guys & a girl" trip hop formula, seemingly oblivious to how truly special their sound was. Chris Corner also became increasingly possessive of their new material. Sadly, Kelli and the boys parted ways. ("And there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth.") Because her wonderful voice was the backbone of the old sound, the new Sneaker Pimps are essentially a whole new band. The new Pimps, led by Corner, are good too, but the old pimps were becoming a revelation.

Cool beats from the mid-1990s British Invasion
Long before Zero 7 and Air shook up urban CD stores with their downtempo chill, the Sneaker Pimps released "Becoming X." Unlike Zero 7 and Air, however, the Sneaker Pimps were far closer to rock than ambience. In fact, the Sneaker Pimps were part of the same 1990s British Invasion that brought us Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Radiohead and the like. "Becoming X" was a promising debut for a band that, unfortunately, never went on to better things.

Unlike most trip hop, which uses largely anonymous female vocalists, the Sneaker Pimps boasted a charismatic and photogenic lead singer in Kelli Dayton. On the best songs on this CD, Dayton shifts through several moods - edgy one moment, playful the next, weary a moment after, and eager the moment after that. Dayton is so playful that unless you listen closely, you won't realise that much of the material here uses standard rock song structures. According to the credits, she didn't write a single word of the lyrics, but there's no denying that her unique voice soars above the exotic flute samples and drumloops that make up the usual instrumental backing here.

"Wasted Early Sunday Morning," "Post-Modern Sleaze," "Tesko Suicide," and the single "Six Underground" are the best songs here. Elsewhere, I found myself wanting more variety, both in tempos and in choices of backing instrumentation.

This is Dayton's only CD with the band. She's since changed her name to Kelli Ali and released two CDs that generally take her into tougher rock and electronica territory. I recommend "Psychic Cat" which is now available as a domestic release in the US. The rest of the Pimps, as mentioned earlier, never surpassed "Becoming X," but if you're addicted to the sound of this CD you'll probably enjoy parts of their later CDs as well.

My fave album of the late 90's
OK, I actually STILL play this CD all the way thru. It's a sonic blast, a must have. HAD to repo it from an ex.
It's too bad the insecure "boys" of the band got jealous and decided to dump Kelli (singer) after this album. They also dumped their electronica/pseudo trip-hop sound and went more guitar oriented (boring) after this. BTW, Roni Sarig's review of this album is ridiculous. They sound NOTHING like Luscious Jackson. This is in my Top 100 Albums. Sample some songs, then buy it.