Search - Adam Franklin :: Bolts of Melody

If you like Swervedriver...

Joseph Broze | chicago | 10/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...then you'll like this CD. Certainly the songs are not as driving as Last Train to Satansville or Son of Mustang Ford. To me, this sounds like some of the songs off Ejector Seat Reservation or 99th Dream. In short, it is fantastic.



I recently saw him play at the Empty Bottle in Chicago and he was AWESOME. It didn't matter that he didn't play 'Driver songs - his newer material was great. This CD is much closer to the classics of his old band, much more so than the Mark Gardener "ghosts" CD (which was great in its own right).



If you were into Swervedriver, feel confident that you will not be disappointed in purchasing this CD. If you've never heard them, this album is full of psychadelic, shoegaze-influenced, sometimes acoustic, melodic indie rock. Not fast or disco-beat utilizing like alot of stuff now. More standard rock beats.



Overall...this is AWESOME. Pitchfork gave this a 5.8 out of 10 - but then again, they are the same retards that think Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is a gift to modern music."

Gentle, grown up Swervedriver

Andrew Otwell | Seattle, WA | 07/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nice stuff. Big, warm, gentle songs, with tons of great guitar sounds. There's plenty here to please the Swervedriver fan: "Seize the Day" and "Shining Somewhere" sound a lot like some of Franklin's old band's work. There's a lot of Toshack Highway here as well, though. "Song of Solomon" and "Theme from LSD" have the same electrocoustic sounds Franklin's been using the last few years in that project, and "Walking in Heaven's Foothills" uses a spoken haunted-astronaut radio transmission very much like Toshack's "Just Landed."



I really enjoy the two or three songs that are more straightforward than most of Franklin's older material: on "Canvey Island Baby", more restrained guitar playing than usual and just a few psychedelic touches make the song really immediate and lovely."