Cards on the table, I wasn’t aware of The Sway back in the day, well, you can’t be everywhere, can you, and I suspect that back in their early nineties heyday, I wouldn’t have been looking to their Brit-pop-infused environs to find my latest sonic fix. But that just proves two things. That Brit-pop was never a cohesive and consistent sound, more a journalistic construct that made little sense, and that context is everything. Actually, three things: it proves what a narrow-minded idiot I was back then.
Context is, of course, everything. Detach their music from the journalistic constructs that would have once helped disseminate it in a certain direction, and I realise I should have been all over this band. Still, with the passage of time and the lack of scene tags and genre labels, it is much easier to see this band for what it is. And what it is is a vehicle for accessible slices of indie-rock songwriting.
“The Grief,” their latest, shows that it is possible to make music at that legendary collision point where pop infectiousness, indie swagger, and rock energy all dance deftly together, each element tempering and trading the others’ baser instincts.
There is a darkness running through the song (understandable given the title) that keeps things from becoming too obvious or throwaway. There is a raw-throated growl in the back of it, a rock vibe that drives and broods in equal measure. And there is a cool indie touch that keeps things balanced between such pop and a hard place.
“The Grief” is the sound of The Sway continuing to write its current chapter, one where fad and fashion have been left behind, and the music can be appreciated for what it is. And it’s groovy, gritty, and flippin’ great.
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