Swim Deep's fourth album foregoes the experimentation of the past couple and offers up a gentle, pastoral, almost Indie Pop affair. The Birmingham band excel in this soundscape. Austin Williams's songs are allowed to breathe without the need to show how different they could be.
The arrangements are outstanding, aided by Bill Ryder-Jones's production that allows much more space and the marrying of a more Acoustic direction with some wonderful Mellotron, yes Mellotron, allows the quality to shine through.
It's not just one thing though. First Song, for instance, is very Spacey, almost gentle Psych with added Electric Guitar that underlines the fact that Swim Deep have not changed direction to come up with 11 songs of chilled out gorgeousness.
Glitter has a Jangle like feel that is restrained, but incredibly effective. These Words is Americana and It's Just The Sun In Your Eyes has an almost West Coast Jazz Rhythm to it, Baroque even, and the vocal is astounding, almost a croon.
Fire Surrounds is incredibly melancholic with a weeping guitar line and a totally chilled out ending. But there is also great Pop, most notably on Very Heaven and Don't Make Me A Stranger may be the most beautiful song you that will hear this year.
There's A Big Star Outside is not the usual big choruses that will generally hear on here. Swim Deep are also a little bigger than the type of bands that we cover. But this is such a wonderful album, particularly instrumentally, that it demands to be hears.
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is also available on Vinyl and CD everywhere.
.............
No comments:
Post a Comment