by Scott Yohe
Slowcore has always been the perfect music for feeling sad. A genre that allows you to ruminate in your emotions and all that is going on. On their self-titled debut, St. Louis band Sinwat shows that this has not changed. What they have created are nine songs that all capture the feeling that the best slowcore has always been able to convey. It is a sort of longing and nostalgia, a feeling that things are no longer as they used to be and there is nothing you can do to change that. These are songs to keep you company in the moments that you feel alone.
Despite being a slowcore album through and through, there is only one song that surpasses the four minute mark. However, none of these songs are in a hurry to end or lack anything. Each song gets in their groove immediately and makes itself at home there. All of the instrumentals are powerful, they all have so much feeling in them. All of the lyrics are packed with meaning and capture that feeling of nostalgia and longing. There isn't a wasted second on the whole record.
The opening track, “Stare” sets the tone perfectly for the album. In less than two minutes the emotional impact of the album can already be felt. The lyrics capture a feeling of wanting to be more than you are. A simple lyric of "it makes me feel like I can be anything I want to be" just feels like so much coming from the band. The next song, “Baseball (Lullaby For Figgy),” is drenched in that feeling of nostalgia for the past. The feeling that childhood was so long ago, and you will not feel like that again and there is nothing you can do about it. The sadness felt in the song “Dumpster” with lyrics like "I had no other dreams last night/but you don't dream at all" just hit so hard.
The longest song, “Sewer Street,” shows Sinwat in peak form. The loud and heavy guitar grooves the entire time, creating an atmosphere that you want to spend as much time in as possible. It is the kind of song that keeps you warm on a cold and dark night. The song “Wrapped in Warmth” shows what the album is all about. Lyrics like "i want to feel a hug" or "i want to feel your head on my chest" encapsulate the feeling of being lonely and wanting someone there with you. It feels bad to need to be "wrapped in warmth" when there is nothing you can do about it. It feels better knowing that you don't have to be alone because you can be with Sinwat, you can commiserate.
The most important thing about this album is its ability to capture a feeling and emotion. Slowcore may be music to feel miserable to, but Sinwat is an album to feel miserable with. In just twenty minutes you are getting so much emotion, so much pain, and so much beauty. This is the type of music that deserves an audience because it cares about those that do. Sinwat truly is the thing that can wrap us in warmth when we need it most.