by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
At this point in time, Chicago’s Options, the solo project of music polymath Seth Engel should need no introduction. He’s played in countless bands, recorded even more, and has recently been a touring member of both NNAMDÏ and Water From Your Eyes, but his focus belongs to the ever amorphous Options project, a fully realized “band” that has been releasing album for the past decade at an almost Pollard rate. Where some prolific artists suffer from quantity over quality issues, Options are a definite exception, as the music Engel releases only gets progressively better, case in point, Swimming Feeling. Due out July 1st via Landland Colportage (Great Deceivers, The Pauses, Joan of Arc), the record features some of Options’ best songs, with fuzzy pop sludge, tangled melodies, and syrupy power-pop charm, all filtered through your favorite sun-spotted shoegaze.
Having shared lead single “Toast,” the album’s opening cut, we take a trip to the other side of the album with “Nothing,” the record’s closer. By the time Swimming Feeling reaches the point of it’s slinking finale, we’re fully engrained in Engel’s world, with slow drawn guitar buzz, rhythms that are always locked into service of the songs themselves, and a forlorn sense of melancholy. “Nothing” hammers it all home, with thick melodic refrains, warm distortion, and an anthemic hook that sounds pulled from the middle of the Tera Melos to Weezer spectrum of the alternative rock. It’s recorded and mixed to perfection (by Engel himself) with all elements given their own path and place, with the twists and turns as smooth as eggs.