keepers 4
keeper avg .400
Being the first Swervedriver album in 17 years (22 years since the classic "Mezcal Head") I had to wonder if they still have it. The chiming yet chunky first notes off Adam Franklin's Jazzmaster in "Autodidact"**** provide part of the answer, as every song sounds as amazing as the most memorable from the classic 90's albums, including "Last Rites"****, filled with dense chording, and rich guitar interplay of "For a Day Like Tomorrow"**** and "Setting Sun."
It is true that some songs, such as the aforementioned "Setting Sun", "Everso" (6:45 of which seems like running in place), "English Subtitles" (Energy heartbreak please), and even the majestic closer "I Wonder?" don't advance far enough past a hooky verse and maybe a similar-sounding chorus; it can make some of the songs seem unsatisfying if you pay too close attention, no matter how pleasant the auditory meal is going down. Elsewhere, "Red Queens Arms Race" is as heavy/blues-y as Swervies get, and "Deep Wound" alternates vocals and riffs as well as "Duel" or "Sunset", though like other tracks it needed more time in the oven. The most satisfying stand-alone track, "Lone Star"****, starts as a tense, angular guitar war that gives way to a graceful, contrapuntal bridge, only to be gate-crashed by Franklin's dive-bombing tremolo.
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