richard swift

Picked up some Richard Swift back cat last week – two double albums for £6 (Music and Video Exchange in Notting Hill is full of second hand Secretly Canadian bargains left by, I like to wonder, west London journos with no taste). Have been getting acquainted with the second half of one of them, Walking Without Effort, and it’s a great conflation of Elliot Smith melancholy leavened with wryness and sealed with an effortless grasp of melody. It’s a brilliant whole-album experience that eases from song to song with a daydreamers meandering and I urge you to get it all, but here’s a taste:

Richard Swift – In The Air

Richard Swift – Losing Sleep

My interest in Swift wasn’t so much piqued as grabbed and pinned down by this song, probably my most listened to track of the last six months:

Richard Swift – Would You

And as coincidence would have it, just as I’m getting into the guy, he brings a new album out, The Atlantic Ocean. It features a collaboration with Mark Ronson, and he’s supporting The Fray on a tour to places like the DTE Energy Music Theatre(?!). He describes it as “Prince sitting in on John Lennon’s Plastic Ono sessions”, but unfortunately it often veers to far towards Lennon’s taste for whimsical piano-led oompah than the Prince end of the spectrum for my taste. But the aforementioned Ronson collabo, which also features Ryan Adams, Sean Lennon and Wilco’s Pat Sansone, is lovely: a very Adamsian soft country stomp with some spring-evening brass and vocal harmonies.

Richard Swift – The Ballad Of Old What’s His Name