Elliott Smith – Queen City Sounds and Art

The Silver Snails, photo by Jasmine Ward

The Silver Snails has been percolating its new album Speed of Light for over a decade since the 2012 release of its debut album The Seven Melodies. The core of the group is husband-and-wife duo Lucas Ward and Elisa Fantini and fashions itself a “glam rock space pop family band.” Even a casual listen to the new album reveals great attention to songwriting detail, performance and production. It has a huge, uplifting, deeply melodic sound and in moments it may remind listeners of something Jeff Lynne and Trevor Horn had their hands in making. In fact, the group covers “Video Killed the Radio Star” by Horn’s New Wave band The Buggles (the video for the original song was the first to be broadcast on MTV) for Speed of Light including a music video made by the members of The Silver Snails. The couple’s three children Jasmine, Celeste and Elias also contribute to the project’s creative efforts including live performances. Long before The Silver Snails became a band Ward was a close friend of singer/songwriter Elliott Smith from whom Ward took some inspiration in his own musical endeavors as someone who writes and records his own songs with keen attention to craft and performance. The album is indeed like a glam rock affair but one that is just as informed by the playful, experimental and imaginative psychedelic rock of Flaming Lips with some sonic resonances with the more space rock end of ELO. Co-produced by Dylan Magierek, mixed by Peter Katis and Adam Selzer and mastered by Greg Calbi and Sterling Sound, its an album that sounds like something from a classic era of pop but with an immediacy that hooks you in with every song. Speed of Light was released on September 5, 2025 on streaming, digital download and CD.

Listen to our interview with Lucas Ward on Bandcamp and follow The Silver Snails at the links below.

thesilversnails.com

The Silver Snails on Facebook

The Silver Snails on Instagram

The Silver Snails on Bandcamp

Overnight packs a lot of feelings and thoughts into its song “Whittier.” It’s reminiscent of the more introspective end of late 90s emo made by people who were also into slowcore and Elliott Smith. The structure of the song starts things off with an urgency to match the intensity of the conflicted feelings expressed. The lyrics recount the romantic niceties of someone who isn’t being completely up front with the object of their affections, or one of them, the kind of person who uses their empathic capacities and sensitivity to manipulate other people to get what they want as long as the illusion lasts. But halfway through the song the tone shifts to more ethereal tones and guitar work and the lyrics recounts the realization of how it’s not one’s responsibility to make sure someone that treats one shabbily feels good and supported in their low key emotional abuse and that not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings doesn’t mean you need to be a doormat. What unites the two parts of the song is an overall mood of what one might call melancholic exuberance meaning you allow yourself to get swept up in a will to both feel all the pain of a breakup and all the confusion, disappointment and anger at yourself for allowing yourself to be in a bad situation, that sort of transmuted guilt, and the psychic energy to exit the situation even if it seems like you’re being mean to certain people. Abusers depend on that social pressure among your friends and family to get hooked back in to a codependent interpersonal dynamic. This song is about having enough self love to declare that someone else’s warped psychology doesn’t have to be a part of your life anymore even if part of you is still in the habit of thinking so. Most break-up songs are informed by too much bravado but “Whittier” is a gorgeously crafted example of of raw vulnerability and honesty with all the edges worn off. Listen to “Whittier” on YouTube and connect with Overnight at the links below.