Review Summary: "Bring me my Girlfriend and a bottle of wine..."
It may come as a surprise to some, but one of my favourite pastimes is tracking down and buying albums that in some respects aren’t that easy to come by these days. This journey mixed with my love for 90s and early 00’s alternative rock led me onto the Ohio based band July For Kings, who endured a small amount of commercial success in 2002 from their debut album
Swim.
Swim spawned a couple of radio friendly hits such as ‘Girlfriend’ and ‘Normal Life’ before the band was cut from their major label and left to fend on their own. After finally obtaining a copy of
Swim (and yes I release the year is 2014) I’ve had the chance to dive into their debut that remains quite a surprisingly solid collection of alternative rock songs.
I am well aware that I am possibly the only person in the world to purchase a copy of
Swim in 2014, but this is what I do. July For Kings is driven by lead singer Joe Hedges whose vocals sound like a mixture of Alex Band and Brett Scallions, combined with a touch of his own flair. Hedges simple, yet introspective lyrics are the main driving force behind
Swim and helped elevate the band above some of their contemporaries of that time. After the album opens up with the world’s most useless intro and moves onto the first song ‘Believe’ the listener can get their first taste of these lyrics. A lifting guitar line begins ‘Believe’ before Hedges melodic vocals begins with ‘the day god closed her eyes...’ which immediately adds some intrigue to the track, whilst also paying homage to Dishwalla, who made a similar statement famous in their song ‘Counting Blue Cars’. After electric guitars swirl around Hedges croons and bring the opener down to a quiet close, it’s time for the albums singles ‘Normal Life’ and ‘Girlfriend’ to roll around. These two songs are possibly the most successful songs in the bands catalogue and for a good reason too. ‘Normal Life’ relies heavily on lyrics relatable to the everyman, whilst ‘Girlfriend’ plays on the trials of being away from the love of your life, whilst adding some nice atmospherics and lyrical twists.
Even though the musicianship found on most of
Swim is rather catchy and features a number of hooks, unfortunately it doesn’t stray too far from what the genre is known for, but that’s not a bad thing if you do it well. The rest of the album remains fairly straight down the line, with similar songs to the singles such as ‘Champagne’ and ‘Meteor Flower’, making for satisfying listens by also experimenting with some acoustic guitar and violins. ‘Start Again’ is somewhat of an anomaly on
Swim that sees July For Kings present there heaviest song, that is driven by a punishing grungy guitar riff and dirty bass thuds.
You might think it’s weird that I’m listening and enjoying
Swim so much in 2014, and I have honestly thought the same thing, but there is something I find very refreshing about albums like this. Maybe it’s due to subconsciously missing this kind of music dominating the mainstream radio, compared to what does nowadays or maybe it’s simply because this music is new to me. Pieces of both those statements are probably true, but either way I’m just happy I’ve found something beneath the surface of an album that was considered mediocre back in the day. Anyone who doesn’t mind this kind of music should definitely check out this July For Kings album that was very underrated for what it was.
