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What the second Swimmer One album will sound like

As I write this I am lounging by the swimming pool in my Glasgow rock star mansion, eating sushi and listening to a CD of 15 half-finished songs, about ten of which will probably make it on to the second Swimmer One album. Unless we throw them all in the bin start again from scratch, as we occasionally do (which is why it took us a while to make the first one).

The songs include, in no particular order: a 12-minute piano epic in three parts (a homage of sorts to The Bird in the Gravel by Jane Siberry and The Ninth Wave by Kate Bush and not, I should strongly emphasise, in any way influenced by any male prog rock bands); a synthpop anthem inspired by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; a big, lighters in the air ballad that was going to go on the first album until we changed our minds quite late in the day (it needed real strings and drums, we decided at the time, and we never quite got round to sorting that out); and a song about psychogeography. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be done by April, just in time to win the Nationwide Mercury Prize.

When we were writing the first album we talked a lot about aspiring to make something in the spirit of classic pop albums we both loved – Dare by Human League, Actually by the Pet Shop Boys, Parallel Lines by Blondie, His n Hers by Pulp, Debut by Bjork; commercial but also leftfield. We succeeded, obviously, as proved by the millions of copies the album has sold in its first three weeks of release, even if The Regional Variations is more sad and downbeat than originally intended, possibly as a result of my really depressing lyrics. Some people seem to like the album for this (depressing lyrics are, apparently, what is demanded from Scottish pop bands by a certain audience, and are why that audience like Scottish pop bands). Other people - including the person I share my rock star mansion with - think I should lighten up and stop writing really depressing lyrics (one review described the album as ‘Erasure with the fun taken out’, one of the funniest put-downs we’ve ever had; we should quote it on every press release we put out from now on).

I still don’t really know what I want the second album to sound like, but these are my favourite albums so far this year, so in my head it’ll sound like a mix of all of these. Although much of what Hamish has written so far sounds like German electronica, so possibly it won’t.

1. Marry Me by St Vincent – I LOVE this, even more than the new Feist album, which is vaguely similar, and also brilliant (and has a counting song - all pop albums should have a counting song). I’m going to meet St Vincent in a few weeks in Glasgow, which I’m very much looking forward to. She reminds me a bit of my favourite singer, Jane Siberry.

2. Control by GoodBooks – If we were a bit more rocky, we would have tried to make an album like this. And possibly succeeded (he said, cockily). The chorus of The Illness always sends shivers down my spine. If you liked the second Bloc Party album and haven’t heard this, buy it immediately. It’s similar but better.

3. Close To Paradise by Patrick Watson. There is, realistically, no way we can make an album that sounds like this. He is a much better singer than me, plays piano absolutely beautifully (or someone in his band does), and is just generally far more talented than either of us – and most other bands out there. If you haven’t heard him, he sounds a bit like Jeff Buckley (and yes, I know millions of people get compared to Jeff Buckley, even people who don’t sound anything like him at all, but Patrick Watson shares his musical scope as well as his trembly falsetto, which is a rare thing, so the comparision is appropriate in this case).

4. Phantom Punch by Sondre Lerche. He’s a big A-ha fan, as am I. He also does a really good cover of Europa and the Pirate Twins by Thomas Dolby. This isn’t as good as his last album, but I still love it. If we had enough money, incidentally, I’d try and get Thomas Dolby to produce something for us. I was listening to Astronauts and Heretics again the other day and it’s still fabulous. Yes, his records have every ridiculously overblown 1980s gimmick going (ponderous spoken intros - check; inappropriate show-offy guitar solo - check; funky slapped bass - check) but it’s all done so knowingly, so cleverly, and with such eccentricity and sense of fun that it pulls it off. But it wasn’t released this year so I should stop banging on about it and move on to…

5. Trainwreck/Raincheck by Simon Bookish. Cower in fear as we unveil our new, Simon Bookish-influenced performance art direction.

6. Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright. The most fabulous pop star in the world. It would be entirely idiotic of us to try and make an album like Release the Stars, or any of his other albums (I preferred Want One and Two, but RTS is still indisputably wonderful), since it is beyond the abilities of almost everyone except Rufus Wainwright. I saw him at T in the Park this year and realised that I have been making excuses for so many bands at festivals – they didn’t have time to soundcheck, the PA doesn’t do them justice, the vocals are mixed too low blah blah. Actually, the fact is that most of these bands just aren’t very good musicians or arrange their songs very well. Rufus sounded as good in a tent in Balado as he would in a concert hall. He sang Noel Coward’s If Love Were All, as Judy Garland, and had a field full of beered up heterosexual Scots eating out of his hand, which was pretty impressive. I saw him again in Glasgow last week. He dragged up for the encore and sang Get Happy, with his band doing Hollywood musical dance moves. Marvellous stuff.

7. Lady’s Bridge, by Richard Hawley – possibly my least favourite Richard Hawley album so far. He seems to be slowly metamorphosing from Lee Hazlewood into Andy Williams, which is slightly peculiar. I like Andy Williams fine, but I’m not sure Richard Hawley should be going there. He’s still more Lee than Andy, though, so we’re safe for now. Hamish is a big Lee Hazlewood fan too, so it’s only a matter of time before we write some gravelly-voiced croony thing.

8. Ghosts by Siobhan Donaghy. You know, her from Sugababes. Marvellous stuff - pop but leftfield, exactly what we’re aiming for really, although Siobhan’s way more glamorous than us, obviously. As the woman puts it on her MySpace page, ‘Some people say you can’t make left-field pop music and be commercial and that’s bullshit. They always say that when there’s nothing else out there like it. I remember what was on the radio when my career began and God, it’s so diverse now in comparison. And it feels good to be a part of it.” Hear hear. Not sure how much of a hit Ghosts has been, but it’s a great, sad, sexy, uplifting adventurous album that gets better with every listen, and deserved far better reviews than it got. Critics, could YOU come up with harmonies like that? I think not.

9. Lionel, It’s A Complicated World by Injuns. What a rubbish title. Not sure the band name is particularly clever either. But they’re absolutely brilliant, like Stephen Sondheim and Billy Joel getting together and trying to make country and western and hip-hop, failing completely, but still creating something wonderful by accident. Injuns are from Skye. You’d never guess. One of them is Mylo’s brother, bizarrely. They didi a gig with Mylo once, which must have been like Prefab Sprout supporting the Chemical Brothers. Wish I’d seen that.

10. The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn by CocoRosie. Probably an indulgence too far, this third album, but I still love them, in all their wacky pretentiousness.

So there you go. That’s what the second Swimmer One album might sound like. Get your pre-orders in now.

Andrew

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Ghosts by Siobhan Donaghy Is my all time favorite song and if that is the sound Swimmer One is going for then you got yourself a new fan. In fact I found your site searching for that song, pretty good stuff. Keep it up

Posted by Vincent Barrows on 02/12 at 12:59 AM

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What the second Swimmer One album will sound like

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