Soft Swells - "Soft Swells"

Artist: Soft Swells
Album: Soft Swells
Label: Modern Outsider Records
Release Date: February 29, 2012
Review by: Sean Kayden

Newbies Soft Swells pour their sorrowed heart and soul into a summer induced album in the midst of a winter season. The poppy rock duo evokes youthfulness that’s becoming more and more ubiquitous with today’s emerging indie acts. Tim Williams and Matt Welsh have a proclivity for creating laidback, pleasing to the ears, accessible tunes. However, their self-titled debut record offers little differences to comparable acts. While the songs here are all relatively sweet and simple, the pot of gold you may be looking for at the end of the rainbow has already been looted. In other words, the cutesy approach of Soft Swells wears out its welcome a bit too quick. The package here is perfectly put together, but the gift inside is something you’ll either have little use for or already own.

Maybe I’ve become slightly jaded over time because if Soft Swells released this album years ago, I may have more love for it. Unfortunately, that’s not the case because the band sounds like “Foster The People” meets “Young The Giant.” Sure, those are two successful bands of the past year, but an album such as this one merely feels trapped within the shadows of those now heavy hitters. Lately, debut records such as this one feel like a dime a dozen. Despite the glaring familiarity, Soft Swells do assemble a few commendable songs. “Say It Like You Mean It” (an incredibly overused title for songs) offers a chilled out melody with contagious guitar riffs. It’s a fun, but a harmless track. Nothing special to report here that hasn’t already been said before on such a tune. “Don’t Cut It Off”, both lyrically and musically, reminds me of “Taking Back Sunday” circa 2009. While I enjoyed the song to a certain degree, it did appear considerably dated. I was purely captivated by what the song reminded me of rather than what it was trying to aim for in 2012. “Never Leave Home” is sung in such a plaintive manner. It easily becomes the sole highlight of a record that has a mixed bag of expendable treats. When Soft Swells show off their soft side, it’s actually quite satisfying. More of these songs are found in the later half of the record. If it’s any consolation, the second half of Soft Swells’ debut is fairly better than the first half. In a rare case, I almost wish Soft Swells released an EP with the last few songs rather an LP with too much filler in the beginning.

The closing song, “Decisions” shows an empathetic side to the duo that’s both endearing and welcoming. If the direction of the album’s sound palette were more like this song, then maybe Soft Swells would be worthy of a closer look. Regrettably it’s not. It leads us to deciding or not if our time should be invested in such an album that has some strong points, but the derivative style is difficult to ignore. It really boils down to a toss up. Maybe fans of the pop-rock sound mixed with considerable earnestness will find something I didn’t. All I know is, Soft Swells takes bits and pieces from other bands I already support and attempt to make an album all of their own. They come up short, but there is still a chance that Soft Swells can head down a road less traveled next time around.

Key Tracks: “Never Leave Home”, “Make It Go Away”, “Decisions”
Grade: 6.7 out of 10

Published on March 10th, 2012 by Mountain Views News
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v06/htm/n10/p13.htm