From the perspective of someone who in a sense makes art and in another sense greatly appreciates all kinds of art, even and sometimes most especially the kind I don’t create myself, I have many opinions about the making of it, its power at birth and most especially its power to live on for a time. It seems to me that the world has a place for fast food artists, ones who make art of any kind to be consumed rather quickly for need of satisfying a craving and then quickly forgotten about. I find this kind of art does not age very well.
Surely there are retrospectives of things long forgotten and people and movements that didn’t get their due, but I’m referring here to mostly an artistic movement that today includes such platforms as Instagram and Bandcamp et al. I’m sorry but taking photos from a phone camera of a single dried up leaf or some old junk in an alleyway, a soiled child’s teddy bear say with the stuffing hanging from its neck and missing an eye, or a few drops of blood in a white sink will only last so long before one moves on to the next picture and forgets the few thrilling moments (if there are any even) those images may have given the viewer. Songs and records have this same self-serving artistic quality to them too. And after time many of the great records one thought were great so long ago become tawdry relics of their time. However, when art lasts, it lasts for a reason. It transcends time and multiple generations are able to lay claim to its powers of influence and use them hopefully to further that line for future generations. I got this feeling when listening to The Swell a record by the New Jersey dream pop outfit sparks fly from a kiss, which was recorded over ten years ago and is just finally seeing a release this December. The Swell is meant to be listened to in one long uncut sitting without gap interruptions which one can hear on Youtube. However the record does just as well with a few seconds of reflection between each of its dreamy ten tracks. Listening to it in its entirety the whole way through is like a journey for the ears of punchy lo-fi rock guitars and noisy bits which as it plays out goes up and down the dial and I kept thinking the record really reminded me of Superchunk, a band whose records I think have aged rather well since their inception in the nineties and early ought’s and the experimental one offs of art rock Sonic Youth explored after taking noise experiments to their apex. The Swell is full of dreamy lo-fi jangle pop hooks and sonic experiments that land on the listeners shore like musical messages in a bottle that have been bobbing on the waves for years. Now that they’re finally here let their beautiful nostalgia flow over you and be amazed by how well they’ve aged.
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