Swell
For All the Beautiful People
Beggars Banquet
The first track reels in with a zippery seething rock shuffle a la “Come Together” meets Love and Rockets’ “So Alive.” But Swell proves themselves masters of minimal metamorphoses as their early ’70s white funk coating holds a fresh surprise around every track corner and many in between.
Swell will be your friend and will not yell at you. They sort of plod along at a Pink Floydian pace with a Violent Femmes organic-icity, the simplicity of Red House Painters with an edgy vocal akin to a lazy but young Robert Palmer. Swell may not actually energize you, but they will embrace you. Sparse and plush, engaging and aloof, almost as if entire songs were made of those little Beatle outros and segue connectors. Maybe even at times like some of McCartney’s demo’s first rough drafts, or if Lennon had written “Mull Of Kintyre.”
“Pink Pink Rain” is an outstanding bizarre montage of atmos-sampling. But mostly the album flies between heavy-ambient and light floaty rock, again, constantly metamorphing itself. And recorded and arranged with a noticeable crystal clarity. A very pleasant discovery for me in which I’m bound to discover more each time I listen. Beggars Banquet, 580 Broadway, Suite 1004, New York, NY 10012
