Gift Horse by Swelle

If Valentine’s Day was tough this year, Gift Horse by Swelle may be able to help, or at least give you an empathetic shoulder to cry on. The record’s folk rock sound takes heavy inspiration from the noisier elements of shoegaze, utilizing a grungy songwriting style with choruses that soar on the wings of noisy guitars and melodic basslines.  Counterpoint verses feature charming banjos, acoustic guitars, delicate synths, and soft vocals, completing the grunge dichotomy with an equally emotive Americana style. Lyrics dance and twirl with the grace of an angelic vocal performance, broaching at times dark subject matter regarding codependent relationships through flippant metaphor and brutal honesty. While these intense romances often ignite into wild fits of anger, emphasized by the more lucid, direct, confrontational demeanor on this record’s noisier moments. However, the depth of that connection, toxic and stifling as it may be, always pulls us back into dazzling idealism, a state always tinged in the melancholy of those lowest moments but whose comfort sustains us until the next inferno.