Sway – Summer Donna (self released)
Totally fucking incredible. I’m a sucker for banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, handclaps, and boy/girl harmonies so I’d already be hooked on Sway, but it’s Catie Rae’s voice that pushes them over the edge. It’s beautifully unique and she’s able to let it loose & go wild without ever losing control. Some of the best tracks are when it’s just Catie & her guitar goin to town like on “Sprout.” So the easiest route is to tag Sway with the country & folk labels but there’s so much more to them than that (just like those giant alien robots). They infuse their sound with some carefree & unruly punk aesthetics. They’re just too fucking cool.
A lot of the songs are unlike anything they’ve done before, adding some melodrama making me think of Devotchka or Victory At Sea, but then they include a few remakes of songs they already recorded to balance it out. A strange move for your third record but some of the makeovers are way better than the originals. It’s saying a lot when one of my previous favorites was “Summer Donna” and I love the new version of it even more. Everything on here though is so goddamn catchy and charming. Perhaps due to my critique of their last record, Rock Bottom, which was missing the laughing and chatter bookending some songs on the first album, they added that back in. I think that means I now can control the future or something?
The best part of Songs For Your Sweetheart? IT’S FUCKING FREE. You can still buy a sexy letterpressed disc (drawn by Swayer Lillie and printed up by Lillie & my wife Elise). But if you’re looking for some free fun, download this hot piece right here and you’ll never listen to anything else. If you need ANY more convincing, just let it be known that I’ve listened to Songs like a hundred bazillion times and I still want more.
Disclaimer: all 6 people in Sway are my pals IRL