Review Summary: Reminds me of this kid who pulls all-nighters four nights a week and constantly smells like cigarettes and Monster. He's a nice guy.
I’m not sure what this band is trying to do. They don’t seem to be trying to do much. They are called Swings, which I imagine came about somewhat like this: Heh, I like swings. Let’s call our band Swings. However, there is something fitting to the name I think. (You can really read anything into anything, but it’s still fun to do so and sometimes you might be right.) There is a lazy, repetitive motion to the music. The singer’s warbly voice sounds how you might sound if you were trying to sing on a swing, and also maybe a bit drunk. But being drunk and swinging seem well-paired, so maybe that’s intentional.
The album is called Sugarwater, and maybe that doesn’t fit with all this drunken swinging, but it sure makes sense to me. This album is sweet, in a simple and kind of strange way. One of my favorite parts is the lazy autotune on Tiles (it might actually be a synth matching the vocal line). I also enjoy the several times when the instrumentalists begin to play quite lackadaisically and things just sort of fall apart. These parts are justified by all other times when Swings really hit a groove and demonstrate their technical abilities, limited as they may be. Dust is a good example of a driving groove, during which the drummer proves he can actually keep a strong beat. Maybe it’s only because of the consistent atmosphere of inebriation that I’m impressed by such moments. But I’m still impressed.
