Richard Swift - Ground Trouble Jaw
Artist: Richard Swift
Album: Ground Trouble Jaw
Label: Secretly Canadian
At first I thought these songs were comic; the falsetto singing, lo-fi production (including some real nutso synth sounds), and pastiche of older pop sounds all reminded me of novelty music, something along the lines of Billy Q. Effinger. After hanging with these songs for a while, though, I can say that the correct word isn’t really comic, but playful. Swift is at play, and it’s awesome. He has a crazy history of releases under a barrage of other names and side projects, and I think this album is trying, as best as it can, to incorporate his diverging impulses into an album that is unpredictable and yet coherent in its open play.
Richard Swift – “Would You?”
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This sounds like it should be on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack or behind an episode of The Wonder Years. The song is packed with sound: a pulsing piano beat, lightly glancing drums, soft backing vocals, Swift’s high voice, synth harp tones, and in the back humming and strumming and all sorts of pops, cracks, and slaps. Quite nice, and perfect for a romantic dinner with a goofy date.
Richard Swift – “The Bully”
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Uncut describes this song as “a schizophrenic face-off between his street-tough Onasis character and this new, falsetto Valli boy persona,” which I think is pretty convincing: the tough, shit-talking greaser quickly morphs into the falsetto-voiced Swift we hear in “Would You?” Silly perhaps, and definitely simple, this song nonetheless makes me smile and is slowly climbing my computer’s top-25-most-played list.
For more general info on Richard Swift, check our his official site or his myspace. Oh, and check out the label site for info on how to download the EP for free.
Technorati Tags: Richard Swift, Billy Q. Effinger, pastiche, falsetto, Dirty Dancing, The Wonder Years
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