Swirlies – They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons
I hadn’t planned on writing about this album because awhile back before I started this blog I had already written something about it in what was sort of a much smaller version of this site. However, I love this album way to much and I eventually realized that no one visited that thing anyway so why not do it over again? So yeah, I am taking this opportunity to once again express my liking towards the Swirlies and their masterpiece They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons. How about that for long winded titles?
The album was released in 1996, a time in which shoegaze was pretty much gone from mainstream music culture. So naturally this album caught some flack for having some similarities to the style. I find it a bit difficult myself to understand how this album could have been pigeonholed as such. It definitely has its moments where the guitars live up to the groups name and they “swirl” for a lack of a better term, however throughout the album there are a ton of pop like melodies that are obstructed by touches of unhinged noise and synthesizers. That’s not even all really, the band basically took the whole “kitchen sink” approach employing just about any form of oddball noise they could lay upon songs that were built along a traditional pop structure. Some of the songs sound like they are hanging on by a mere thread, sounding so loose that it’s a wonder that the whole thing doesn’t collapse. It just feels like every sound and tiny nuance has the utmost importance, helping meld the fractured parts of the groups sound with upbeat and poppy melodies. Simply, whether they know it or not, the Swirlies created one of the best noise pop albums that I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing.
Swirlies – In Harmony New Found Freedom [MP3]
Swirlies – San Cristobal de las Casas [MP3]
Swirlies – The Vehicle is Invisible [MP3]
They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days… is still available from most major online retailers and such, so by all means pick it up from Amazon or wherever you people like to do you’re online shopping. I urge everyone to do so.
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November 18th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I agree. I became friends with them during this period and played some shows with them with my old band. I think if they hit in the early 2000’s things would have been quite different. From the first time I heard the record on a 3rd generation cassette copy in winter 96, until now, it is still an inspiration. Perpetual things to discover in sounds on that album. And the plus is that they’ve always been humble honest guys.