When anything and/or everything goes tits up, there are two options: power through like it never happened, or cease everything and retreat into a black hole. Take, for example, Natalie Imbruglia, to an extent. I feel like she released Torn in the late 90s, it shot to the top, and then she disappeared off the face of the Earth without any further success. Her legacy is now limited to drunken slurs of Torn at karaoke bars in Benidorm, and the signature acoustic version every year on X Factor…
Anywho, Swim Deep have chosen the former option, and respectably so. With being two members down and dropped from their record label in a space of mere months, it hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride for the group; and calling it quits was lingering on the radar for them. That is, until, McCarthy & Williams – the two remaining members, bassist and keyboard players respectively – rolled their sleeves up and recruited two new members. Then, the rebuilding happened.
Emerald Classics unquestionably proves that this was the right decision. They’re clearly at their musical peak, and have undoubtedly come out the other end; the outcome sort of agrees with the notion of suffering for worthy art. It’s almost a parallel to when you go through a break up, get a new haircut, and then suddenly just thrive. And Emerald Classics is the equivalent of this haircut. A progressive, bright, and breathtaking one.
With the title itself being a wink their local Irish pub, “The Emerald”, each track is strikes a refreshing middle ground between the every day and the fantasy. It’s “an album for dreamers and pub jukeboxes,” they recently told an interviewer. Lead single ‘To Feel Good’ embodies this proclamation perfectly, opening the album with a nostalgic nod to before they became one of Birmingham’s bustling bands.
An ode to persistence and loyalty in all its facets, the whole album is ingrained with a contagious positivity which is both inspiring and innocent.
Haiku Review
They’re back with a bang
Like nothing ever happened:
Nineties indie dream.
