It\u2019s tough to stay afloat in today\u2019s music world; up-and-coming bands are a dime a dozen, and it\u2019s easier than ever to get material to the masses. Luckily, wading through so many rip-offs and MySpace hopefuls helps attunes you to the real stuff: the albums you want to listen to over and over, the catchy, soulful songs that hit you right in the heart. The sophomore release from Philadelphia-based The Swimmers (their first album, Fighting Trees<\/i>, was released in 2008) is a solid, well-crafted release that predicts good things for this quartet. Chock full of slick, pretty pop songs swathed in synthesizers and odd, evocative lyrics, People Are Soft <\/i>floats by in a blur at first but reveals deeper layers upon further listen. <\/p>\n
Opening with \u201cThe Lucky Ones,\u201d the album ensconces you all at once in a sparkling guitar riff and energetic drums as lead singer\/songwriter Steve Yultzy-Burkey sings, \u201cTo start again, we\u2019re the lucky ones.\u201d His vocals are warm and languorous, a nice match for the song\u2019s full harmonies and slow-building electric backbeats. Cleanly, the band segue into \u201cA Hundred Hearts,\u201d which pairs The Swimmers\u2019 lovely meld of swelling reverb, rich harmonies, and creepily tender vocals. This cut is a twisted little love song, with images of yanking out lion\u2019s teeth and the swirling chorus \u201cIf you had a hundred hearts you could try to ration out them \/ But one by one they\u2019d break them \/ And then you\u2019d be without \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n
On this disc, the band (comprised by Steve and Krista Yutzy-Burkey, Scott French, and Rick Sieber) built a home studio from the ground up and recorded the material here by themselves, resulting in a cohesive sound that for its reliance on electronic textures still manages to sound close and intensely personal (not to mention, extremely polished).<\/p>\n
The longest song here is just over four minutes, and it\u2019s clear that The Swimmers do well in confined space; their best songs are short and deceptively bright, full of jangling instrumentation and thick electric guitar riffs, like on the quick, triumphant burst of energy of \u201cDrug Party\u201d or the almost manic energy of \u201cGive Me The Sun,\u201d accented with handclaps and a New Wave-ish bassline.<\/p>\n
\u00a0It really sounds like The Swimmers are having fun with their material, pushing the boundaries of their sound and relishing that exploration. Between textures and tempo, no song stays static for very long, instead changing shape to become different beasts entirely. Take \u201cNervous Wreck,\u201d which starts out with agitated bass and close-miced vocals to betray tension; as the chorus kicks in, though, the song suddenly becomes a propulsive, shimmering anthem of optimism. <\/p>\n
Being such a tight, inventive album, the few less than exciting moments do tend to stick out, however. \u201cDress Don\u2019t Fit,\u201d for one, is a bit too repetitive for such a clipped runtime, while the languid pace of \u201cWhat This World Is Coming To\u201d takes time to warm up to after the punchy outro of \u201cDrug Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, as things paddle to a close with the swelling, bouncy beats of \u201cTry To Settle In,\u201d it\u2019s hard to find fault with this short but lovely disc. On People Are Soft, <\/i>the band finds new language to express timeworn feelings as varied as disconnect to hope; there are surely open waters ahead for The Swimmers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":30138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8489],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41777","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-swimmers","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41777"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41777"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}