Astral Swans. Astral Swans

With its album 'Astral Swans' Astral Swans returns to this blog. To think that I saw Matthew Swann perform solo in Amsterdam Noord only a year before we all were thrown back onto ourselves due to the pandemic. In a time it was totally normal to take the train and ferry and walk to an obscure venue to listen to music with others. How times changed in the meantime and are still not fully back to normal, if ever in the coming few years.

What has come to pass is a new Astral Swans' album and what a nice album it is. Let me fall in with the door with that comment. Was his previous album, released on Tiny Room Records, an alternative affair and somewhat darker, and good, don't misread me here, 'Astral Swans' is far more upbeat. I'm not afraid to write I'm listening to alternative pop in some of the songs.

In the first two songs Swann sings duets with Julie Doiron (Eric's Trip and Mount Eerie). The duets give a totally different feel to Astral Swans' music. A touch of light is added. Believe it or not, on the moment of writing a ray of sunlight falls through my window, accentuating my observation during the opening song 'Spiral'. Both 'Spiral' and 'Flood' have an ethereal quality. Especially in the way the vocals of 'Flood' are recorded give an impression as if they hover over the music.

When an alternative disco rhythm opens 'Blackhole Town', it's almost as if Astral Swans has released a party album. This song is danceable, folks, so do when you see the band play live. As a solo live experience it may be skipped though. The song works. A more simple conclusion can not be shared with you.

As a whole the atmosphere of 'Astral Swans' reminds me of what Lou Doillon is capable of reaching for. The French singer of part U.K. decent has that same balance between pop and seriousness this album contains. The seriousness is there, just as the alternative edge is in place. 'Sympathy For The Stupid' descends into anarchy in the solo before returning to the tune it also is. With the anarchy 'Astral Swans' shows the extreme side of the unpredictability the album contains as well. There's no telling what the next song will do, except that it will make you feel more upbeat. Not every song is upbeat as such, they even ask existential questions: "I'm free, but I don't know if I'm happy", sung over a fairly upbeat tempo, may sound confusing to the unsuspecting listener. Someone capable of writing a song like 'Bird Songs' is doing something right in his life though.

Moving through the album you will find it is littered with the elements mentioned so far, including Julie Doiron's voice in the nice cover of Cat Power's 'Cross Bones Style'. (Cat Power has just announced a cover album, btw.) It all makes me conclude that with its self-titled album Astral Swans has released a gem of an album that certainly is a contender for the best of 2021 list I'm slowly having to think about compiling. When the last song, 'I Was Awake For Awhile,' is as interesting as the start of the album, including a return to a little anarchy, I rest my case.

Wout de Natris