By: Rich Buley
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Released on March 3, 2015 via Cherry Red Records
When the Son Of Mustang Ford EP came hurtling out of the gas station and into our consciousness, it was 1990 and the UK alternative music scene was in the midst of a reverb drenched, delay soaked tidal wave of Shoegaze. Swervedriver, largely because of their Oxford location and Creation records deal, were immediately lumped in to ‘The Scene That Celebrates Itself’ by the music press of the time. But this band presented an altogether different proposition to the ethereal, woozy output of most of their Creation contemporaries. Swervedriver traded instead in a brand of open road, expansive alternative rock music that had its foundation in Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr and Pixies, but with a noise makeover courtesy of My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. The result? Some of the most exhilarating, turbo charged tunes I have ever had the pleasure of discovering. Boy, the first time I saw them live, at the New Cross Venue in 1991, you could actually smell the fumes. The first three EPs feature images of – and are littered with references to – fast cars, desert highways, windswept coastlines and escapism, and made the band taste deliberately of gasoline-fuelled America, with the languid, drawn out vocals of Adam Franklin also helping to place the band on a southern Californian freeway, rather than the A34.
Two seminal albums followed, debut Raise continuing very much in the same enveloping, rocket propelled vein of those early EPs, while Mezcal Head, released after original bassist Adi Vines’ departure, saw some of the band’s rougher edges smoothed, and their tantalising melodic glimmer accentuated by a bigger, bolder Alan Moulder production.
For this writer, the 2 albums that followed, 1995’s Ejector Seat Reservation and 99th Dream, 2 years later, never came close to matching the head swirling euphoria of their earlier material, with more rhythm section changes behind core members Franklin and guitarist Jimmy Hartridge seeming to influence a move towards a more classically British indie guitar rock sound.
After enough record label hassle to make several bands implode, and a less than favourable reaction to the 4th album, Swervedriver called it quits in 1998, and I shed a little tear at the news that I would never hear the opening chord sequence to Duel played live ever again…or so I thought.
Ten long years later, and entirely unexpectedly, with Franklin having enjoyed another period of critical success with his Bolts Of Melody project, Swervedriver reformed and went on to play a series of short US, UK and Australian tours, including a night at the Highbury Garage in 2009 that will live long in my memory.
I Wasn’t Born To Lose You, the 5th album, has now arrived, a mere 18 years since the previous one, and the chiming, wistful chords of opening track ‘Autodidact’ are instantly recognisable as Swervedriver, and entirely warm and enticing as a result. It is a perfect beginning, with Franklin’s travel themed lyrics to the fore, and he and Hartridge’s meandering guitars bringing the aforementioned Duel to mind.
‘Last Rites’ follows and continues in what I would attest is a sound and style somewhere between the more restrained, open spaces of Ejector Seat Reservation and the polished, all-encompassing heft of Mezcal Head.
‘For A Day Like Tomorrow’ takes the pace down a couple of notches with a nagging, bluesy riff and typically downbeat verse before ‘Setting Sun’ has a less than 3 minute, slightly off-kilter outing, with the band again displaying their summery, mellower side.
The album’s centrepoint, ‘Everso’, sounds like it is going to explode into distortion and chaos at any moment, but is instead an exercise in expertly delivered restraint, while ‘English Subtitles’ has a wonderfully infectious chorus and is arguably the most immediate track on the album.
‘Red Queen Arms Race’ is something of a departure for Swervedriver, and has far more in common with the blues-infused, mid paced rock of latter day Queens of the Stone Age or Blood Red Shoes than the grungy punk of Sugar.
Initial single ‘Deep Wound’ increases the velocity once again in near classic style, before the album concludes with the poppy ‘Lone Star’ and the brooding, building ‘I Wonder?’ All 3 tracks sound like they could have been recorded any time between 1993 and 2015, and I guess you could make that statement about the album as a whole.
Long-standing fans may be slightly disappointed by the fact that there is nothing here that matches the reckless abandon and free-wheeling ferociousness of those early EPs, but in truth across the first four albums Swervedriver’s sound developed quickly, and the dreamy, majestic alternative rock that is on show here is eminently more representative. Whilst their original legion of fans will be intent on a trip down memory lane at their upcoming UK gigs, which I am sure will be delivered, this excellent new material should also help reduce the average age of the audience considerably!
