Richard Swift: The Atlantic Ocean (Secretly Canadian, 2009)

“Anthropological swag with rock and roll banjo and a trift-shop synth” says the sticker on the cover. Someone has come up with quite a marketing sentence, but I suppose it worked because I bought the album. Well bigger reason for that was that I really enjoyed his debut double album The Novelist / Walking Without Effort and therefore I thought I will give this a shot (I had already missed the second album).  It was a minor mistake, because it seems that Richard Swift nowadays makes too good music for me. He has turned into this pop genius with an experimental side and I’m a boring person with a simple taste of music. That is not a match made in heaven. I can’t say that the guy doesn’t have an ear for melody anymore, because there still are several gorgeous moments within the songs. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Atlantic Ocean was the pop album of the year for several people, but for me it just doesn’t work as a whole no matter how hard I try.

Richard Swift Website
Richard Swift at myspace