Swim Deep – Where The Heaven Are We
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Buy: Where the Heaven Are We
In promoting debut album Where The Heaven Are We, Swim Deep singer Austin Williams said he wanted to ‘own the summer’. After seeing the B-town band radiate carefree vibes and luscious melodies at Glastonbury, it seemed like the summer was theirs for the taking. Add in the awesome singles ‘Honey’, ‘King City’, ‘The Sea’ and ‘She Changes The Weather’ and Swim Deep appear to have the indie world at their feet.
Predictably, Where The Heaven Are We doesn’t quite live up to the promise of those four singles – but honestly, what could? With their mix of joyous synths, bouncy melodies, urgent rhythms and brilliant pop lyricism (”Don’t just dream in your sleep / It’s just lazy” they’re the best set of songs from a new band I’ve heard in a long while.
As well as these early singles, there are other gems to be found elsewhere on Where The Heaven Are We. ‘Francisco’, with its dramatic opening and Passion Pit-esque synth riff, stands out as an obvious next single and live favourite, and ‘Make My Sun Shine’ has a certain languid, early-Charlatans charm to it.
The rest of the album lacks the conviction and killer hooks of these tracks though. ‘Red Lips I Know’, ‘Soul Trippin’ and ‘Stray’ are all nice enough on the ears, but they float by without making much of a lasting impression.
Swim Deep set such a high benchmark with their early releases that it was always going to be a hard job to impress even more with their debut album. They’ve got talent in spades, though, and on the evidence of Where The Heaven Are We they could well put a classic album together in the future.
Where The Heaven Are We is out on 5 August, and is available to stream online now over at NME.com.
If you have Spotify, you can also stream the whole album below:
