As this decade soldiered on, Snax saw dramatic changes come and go. Mortality, rediscovery, struggle, spirituality, carnality, and commitment all figured prominently in Snax's world. Elements and instances of life formed a puzzle, asking to be put together and deciphered even though some pieces seemed to be missing. Snax (AKA Berlin-based musician and vocalist Paul Bonomo) finds some of the answers with Shady Lights, his fourth artist album and the first since 2010's Special Guest Star. Snax is an artist possessed by music, always performing and with a history in a number of impressive projects. He's traveled from his origin in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, to New York City, finally settling on the vibrant artistic scene in Berlin. Other important markers on his timeline are the gay art band Fagbash, which Snax founded, and his time as one-half of disco-pop band Captain Comatose. The inspiration of Berlin prompted Snax to go solo, writing and performing the majority of instruments and vocals himself. From The Rocking Chair To The Stage marked Snax's album debut, released on Mental Groove, followed by the more relatively acoustic Love Pollution for TNT/Four Music. Feeling the need for further independence, Snax launched Random Recordings in 1997, which, thirteen years later, became the home for his third album, Special Guest Star. Since then, Snax founded House Of Snaxine and fostered his house music project Box Office Poison. Snax further honed his live show and DJ prowess and collaborated with the likes of Jamie Lidell, Peaches, Joey Arias, and Terranova. Upon supporting The Scissor Sisters throughout Europe as the opening act, Snax was described by frontman Jake Shears as “a one man fro freak show not to be missed.” With Shady Lights, Snax builds on this accrued musical wisdom and peppers it with profound life experiences from the past several years. The album comes at the end of a period marked by the pain of surgery, the selling of his childhood home, and the loss of a loved one to suicide, but also the joy of marriage and commitment, and a terrific new studio space for working through all these ideas. But not all the influences were strictly personal. Says Snax: "The events of 2016, generally the deaths of so many musicians, specifically Prince, not to mention the gloomy American political situation, affected me quite a lot." But Snax counters with an album that takes all these themes and imbues them with a dose of hope. Shady Lights' seventeen tracks (including some strategically placed instrumental codas) swing and groove with confidence, filled with earworm choruses and slinky musical accompaniment, derived from influences as disparate as abstract pop, musique concrète, R&B, and punk rock. The puzzle process that guided the album is camouflaged by a sequence of distinct songs that flow together with purpose, sort of like life's unconnected events forming a whole. The title offers an additional clue, inspired by St. Hildegard von Bingen's visions of God that she referred to as 'the shade of the living light.' "I was puzzling over the title of this album," says Snax. "It should be something about carnality, spirituality, rediscovery, opposing yet united forces. And there it was. Shady Lights." Among the album's many highlights are No Fakin', a futuristic love song flecked with broken percussion and layers of evocative vocals; the explosive and sinuous Final Hour, including lyrical cut-ups inspired by Snax's past adventures in employment; the low-down dark funk of Are You With Me? featuring Taylor Savey on a liquidy bass guitar; Two Souls, Snax's introspective ode to commitment and relationships; and Hands Dirty, inviting party goers to eschew their cell phones and social media in favor of real human connection. It's difficult to condense Shady Lights to just a few highlights as its 17 tracks intermingle as chapters in a compelling story … the story of Snax, and life's trials and triumphs. Then there's the groove that connects the heart to the dance floor. The funk throughout Shady Lights can't be ignored, but Snax's brand is a nod towards the sound's headier origins. "Funk music doesn’t get enough credit for being dark and abstract," says Snax. "One can hear this in my heroes’ music: Prince, Clinton, and Sly Stone. Angry, neurotic, mysterious; multifaceted as well as cathartic. That's the sound of Shady Lights."