by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
For the past seven years or so Matthew Swann has been making experimental folk and indie rock under the name Astral Swans, traveling a little further “out” with each successive release. He’s also had an impressive knack for skeletal recordings with lo-fi haze but perfectly captured nuance and subtle harmonies. Since the band’s first single (“You Carry A Sickness”) back in 2014, Swann has kept up a steady stream of soft psych and songs beautifully melancholic. It’s been three years since Astral Swans’ last full length, Strange Prison, but today the project has announced a new self-titled album, due out October 8th via Victory Pool Records, an album said to be written in Swann’s head while taking walks around various cities (pre-pandemic) and then the same city (during the pandemic).
“Flood,” the record’s lead single sounds immaculate right from the jump. The song, which features guest vocals from Julie Doiron (Eric’s Trip, Mount Eerie), is sparse in nature, but truly has an enormous feel, built on Kevin Sullivan’s smooth saxophone lead, lush keys and acoustic guitars, with a steady rhythm, and Swann’s warm vocals. As always, his voice and lyrics are the center of every great Astral Swans and this one is no different, an upbeat and jazz-inflected indie folk song, that pulls optimism out of the heaviest of days, reminding us that “after the flood, comes all the flowers” before the eventual shift to “after the flood drowns all the others, maybe you and I can be lovers.” It’s not exactly a sunny thought, but there’s a some sort of hope to be found.