Silversun Pickups - Swoon

I am not sure why it has taken me quite so long to get around to this album. I have had it since its UK release a couple of months ago but haven't really gotten into it til these last couple of weeks. Maybe I had one of my fifty quid man moments and bought too many at the same time - always a bad move despite the brief enjoyment of scooping up a bundle of things at the same time. The trouble is they dont all get the time and attention they deserve and I suspect that Swoon suffered this ignominy.

Anyhow its now been on repeated play for a while and I am well in love with it. Despite the rather odd vocal delivery from Brian Aubert, I have grown used to it and even see it as part of the albums charm.

The opener is still not a favourite but The Royal We, and Growing Old Is Getting Old certainly are. Panic Switch is a great blast and Draining represents one of the calmer, quiter tracks that punctual the later stages of the album. Indeed Aubert thinks the quiet /loud contrast is a defining charactersitic of the album. Overall there is something wonderfully melodramatic about the whole set, sweeping soundscapes with for me some particularly impressive and endearing bass lines from Nikki Monninger.

The album artwork is fabuluous, apparently courtesy of Darren Waterston, his piece, 'St Clair' being the basis for the cover with two more pieces featuring inside. Mmm I do regret not getting into the album sooner and so spurring me to get tickets to their Thekla gig which I missed 'cos I was too darned slow... let that be a lesson

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