Walking down the dusty, hallowed halls of The Sway’s back catalog is an enjoyable affair, not least because there is so much going on in their music that echoes with parallel points on the timeline of my own life. If Going Blind, which was my first encounter with the band, is a release from 1994, a time when I was probably at my most musically engaged, regarding going to live gigs, When Worlds Collide, from 2011, marks a time when I was starting to make a living writing about music.
What began as a reunion gig and a final farewell led to a new chapter in the band’s career, a new burst of creative energy that resulted in this album. And, enough time has passed, more than enough, that the band has rightly seen fit to give it another day in the sun. And why not? It’s a cracker of an album.
Although their earlier career saw them navigate the horrors and hellscape of Britpop (not you, Pulp, obviously) When Worlds Collide reminds us that their reference points have always been more eighties-infused, such as The House of Love and Echo & The Bunnymen (and perhaps via them, Liverpool’s finest, a touch of Doorsian psychedelia too.
The titular opener could easily have been found on Ocean Rain, which is about as great an accolade as I can give, “It’s Your Choice” is gently anthemic, reminding me of another of Merseyside’s great bands, the mighty Icicle Works (that spiraling guitar has McNabb’s deftness all over it) and “I Won’t Forget” is both sonically lush and musically dense.
Sometimes, it is only in hindsight that we can see how far we have come, and with the reemergence of this album and a reminder of how great bands like The Sway were, I would have to say that indie music, at least, seems to be going backward. Listen to this album as a benchmark, and then play something by any new indie band doing the rounds today. The same questions will run through your mind: Where’s the finesse? Where’s the melody? Where is the poise? Where is the sonic breadth? The attention to detail? The lushness, the richness, the understated anthemics?
Where indeed.
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