Search - Swell :: Swell

Underrated Classic

Joshua M. Fischer | Georgia, USA | 10/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My first experience with Swell was a live concert in Los Angeles, where they opened for The The and Frank Black. They weren't even supposed to play, but filled in for another opening band that couldn't make it. The only thing Swell did wrong that night was leave the stage. It was a mind-blowing show that I still remember parts of, and it's been more than 10 years since that show. Their albums are complex explorations of atmospheric randomness, and they inhabit a corner of the music world that very few people visit. I think this is the first album, and at this moment there is a copy available on this website for under two dollars. I recommend buying it to see for yourself the orignality that mainstream radio and culture can't quite appreciate. I often think of the band name to represent powerful undersea waves, which is what this album sounds like."

A great start to a great band

Spectre | Iraq (temporarily) | 10/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I cannot say enough about Swell. They are a wildly underrated band, sort of an indie-pop Helmet, if you will. This is, as far as I know, their very first album first released on vinyl in the late 80s and then again on cassette tape shortly afterward. Poppy upbeat songs alternate with shoe gazing, and sometimes even menacingly dark tracks. 'Sick side of a church' is an electric organ peice with a sample of a man on a street corner preaching his twisted views to an uncaring world. Wooden Hippie Nice [wouldn't it be nice] is about as happy as I have ever heard this band, almost dreamily euphoric. A very fun album from a band destined to do great things."