Thirteen years is not merely a gap in a discography; it is a lifetime in the ephemeral world of dream pop. Since 2013’s last full-length ‘Hit The Waves’ (Labrador), the silence from Jönköping’s finest, The Mary Onettes, has been filled with the echoes of solo projects, film scores, and a quiet, domestic gravity. But with their fifth studio album, ‘Sworn,’ the band hasn’t just returned; they have emerged from the chrysalis of a decade-long hiatus with their most cohesive, emotionally translucent work to date. ‘Sworn’ is an album that demands the bygone ritual of a start-to-finish immersion. In an era of fractured playlists, Philip Ekström and company have crafted a linear narrative of sound that feels less like a collection of singles and more like a curated gallery of Scandinavian melancholy.
The Mary Onettes have always been the standard-bearers for a specific brand of lush and visceral intensity of emotion. On ‘Sworn,’ the production is a masterclass in atmospheric layering. It is a record that breathes through shimmering Robin Guthrie*-style guitars that explore texture and space, driven by *Peter Hook*-esque basslines, and a rhythmic pulse that feels borrowed from the heart of 1985. The record begins with “WDWHL,” a track draped in sustained drone textures that immediately recalibrates the listener’s ears to the band’s signature dream-state. “Hurricane Heart” and “Without This Body” act as the album’s engine. The former utilizes a propulsive beat, reminiscent of *Kate Bush’s epic “Running Up That Hill,” to carry a massive, sky-reaching chorus. “ARP” offers a fascinating detour into synth-minimalism. With its Kraftwerk*-inspired skeleton and *Agnes Aldén’s shadowy guest vocals, it proves the band is just as comfortable in the neon-lit basement as they are in a sun-drenched meadow.
The heart of the album lies in its mid-section, where the songwriting moves from euphonic to numinous. “The Big Shake” is arguably the finest song the band has ever recorded. It reaches a state of incandescent swell; a sonic saturation where slick basslines meet a wall of sound that feels both triumphant and devastating. This is followed by the ethereal “Eyes Open,” a duet with Maja Milner (Makthaverskan). Milner’s presence adds a haunting, serrated edge to the band’s lushness, carving out a definitive moment in the tracklist that feels like a fever dream you never want to wake from.
Ekström’s lyrics on ‘Sworn’ have shifted toward the suggestive and the existential. There is a beautiful vagueness to tracks like “Without This Body,” where the lines between a breakup and a literal departure from the physical plane are blurred. When he sings, “I wanna be a part of the things I’ve done,” on “Slide,” it feels like a manifesto for a band reclaiming their legacy after years of silence. The album concludes with “Stop the Melody,” a darker, drum-heavy bookend that mirrors the record’s cryptic opening sample. It is a somber, perfect exit for an album that deals so heavily in the passage of time.
‘Sworn’ is a high-water mark for The Mary Onettes. While some might see this as a band re-learning the physics of their own atmosphere, the sheer craftsmanship on display suggests otherwise. This is not a band trying to recapture their youth; this is a veteran act using their scars to create something more resonant, more textured, and more permanent. It is an album of green lights dancing on an equalizer, occasionally hitting the red, and carrying the listener away on a tide of Swedish noir. The Mary Onettes haven’t just returned to form, they have transcended it.
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