Swell

They may have originally called themselves Swell to be ironic but in a just world, their new album Whenever You're Ready would catapult them far from their self-confessed drifting just below everybody's conciousness to the far headier heights that their name suggests.

Whenever... really is that triumphant a return to form. After a lengthy hiatus, it also heralds the return of founding band member, Sean Kirkpatrick, to the fold. Sean rejoins on drums and links up with ever-present David Freel to reposition Swell back to it"s original duo status.

There has been one problem to all this though. That problem is the small matter of the 300 miles that now separate the two (David lives in San Francisco and Sean resides further down the coast in Santa Barbara). They readily admit that this has been a major cause of friction between them but as David succinctly puts it, "that"s not necessarily a bad thing. Just look at George and Ringo or Mr. Kissinger and Mr. Nixon." He's right. It hasn"t stopped them from recording a very great Swell record, maybe their best.

With Sean's return, it also means that Swell has its original artist back in residence and his paintings once more adorn their sleeves. For Whenever..., Sean has turned to that very theme for inspiration and can be found depicting scenes from the long journey along Highway 101 – a beautiful drive that rambles back and forth between the ocean, dry rolling hills, old missions, vineyards and some forgotten little towns.

Preceeding the album is a limited edition double 7" single that features two of the albums highlights, "California, Arizona" and "Word Gifts". Picking these two for the single must have been difficult as there is so much to choose from, "Next To Nothing", "Convince Us" and "So Easy, So Cool", in particular. "California, Arizona", the album closer, is epic and is influenced by the distances that seperate you from those that you have met on your way. "Word Gifts", meanwhile, simply teaches us to go and seize the day; something they"ve obviously headed themselves whilst recording this album.

Recorded in five different locations (including Sean"s garage), Swell have done an amazing job of capturing the feel of sun drenched California. So much so, they're as good as kicking the sand in your face. You could go as far as calling Whenever... their California concept album but we prefer to think of it as another Swell gem that helps to reconfirm what we"ve always known about this band. That is that they"re still up there with the very best of their kind.