Apparently an influence on Grandaddy, Swell hail from San Francisco and do the normal Americana bluesy, country stuff.
Having been around for the last ten years they are probably hoping to finally get a bit of recognition in the wake of the recent popularity of Lambchop and Grandaddy. The problem is they seem to have been ripped off by Gomez. In fact the second track “Someday Always Comes” sounds like it a Gomez B-side. And if anyone is under the illusion that this is a good thing, then you are wrong. Maybe it would sound great if Gomez never came along.
There is more to the music though, which makes you understand why they are well thought of by the bands they’ve influenced. It’s not tradition, straight forward indie nonsense. You can listen carefully and find all sorts of subtleties, discordant pavement-esque noise included and a fair bit of ‘Sophtware Slump’ style knackered keyboard sounds. Just enough to keep it interesting. Which is really all the EP is. Pretty interesting, but nowt special.
-
4Tim Whitehouse's Score