NORTH AMERICAN DATES FORTHCOMING
Photo: Steve Gullick
Across the four-album arc of their first era – Raise (1991); Mezcal Head (1993); Ejector Seat Reservation (1995); 99th Dream (1997) – Swervedriver made music that was all about the journey.... Swervedriver simulated the thrill of propulsion, the euphoric arrival, the anticipation of going back again (or not)… of moving on. And move on they did. During 10 years in absentia, the band’s legend grew. In 2005, a two-disc anthology was compiled with the band’s involvement, and foretold a resurrection. Sure enough, the trip resumed in 2008, with Swervedriver encountering the acclaim they ought to have enjoyed a decade earlier. A fifth album, I Wasn’t Born To Lose You, emerged in 2015, a mere 17 years after its predecessor, and trumpeted some eternal Swervedriver virtues: the intricate, fissile guitar patterns of Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge, baked hard then dispatched in giant monolithic waves by the tactile rhythm section.
Future Ruins, the new album out this Friday, January 25th via Dangerbird Records, exhibits the band's fabled widescreen escapism, but combined with very real fears of the modern condition. Mary Winter, a song narrated by a recognizable Swervedriver archetype: a traveler, hurtling away from this world. But where is the traveler headed? And why? The Lonely Crowd Fades In The Air offers some possible answers: “We’ve stumbled into the end of days/Where the future comes home to cry… Drone Lover, a song that predates the last album, is a comment on the depersonalized nature of 21st century techno-warfare. Just as there was never any thought of I Wasn’t Born To Lose You being a last hurrah for old time’s sake, Future Ruins presents a band moving with real time/real life vitality. It showcases new tricks and classic hallmarks: pop songs, odd arrangements and weird contrasts, like Spiked Flower’s rock’n’roll grind, breaking out to acknowledge English landscape painter John Constable; and a lyric that references Echo & The Bunnymen. The band will be announcing North American dates very soon.
Swervedriver are:
Adam Franklin (guitar, vocals)
Jimmy Hartridge (guitar)
Mikey Jones (drums)
Mick Quinn (bass)
Early praise for Future Ruins:
“Future Ruins pushes the envelope beyond expectations or indeed, any specific genre……a welcome addition to the Swervedriver canon. It also fully confirms their reunion was anything but a nostalgia trip.”Under The Radar
“Whether or not Future Ruins is the record that finally breaks Swervedriver through to the masses, it shows the band are still making their own breakthroughs.” PopMatters
“…these songs document the ongoing and confident rejuvenation of a band thoroughly enjoying their second wind. I sincerely hope that they can keep this positive trend going in the future.” Everything Is Noise
“Future Ruins pulls of a canny trick, perfectly channeling their past while making sense in the present” MOJO
“... co-founders Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge venture beyond the template of Raise and Mezcal Head without making the faithful worry they’ve ditched their distortion pedals” Uncut
“[Future Ruins] shows that the band still have something to say and prove. They’re in it for the long haul” DIY
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