Richard Swift: Dressed Up For The Letdown

The hit of last year’s South By Southwest signing scrum, with his third album, bubble-permed wonderchild Richard Swift easily justified all the A&R hype. This multi-instrumentalist, producer and film-maker might’ve grown up on a farm deep in rural Minnesota, but here Swift’s head is stranded halfway in time between the Prohibition era and LA’s Laurel Canyon in about 1970: ‘Dressed Up For The Letdown’ comprises 10 tracks of sepia-tinged slightlydelic pop that are as affecting as they are jaunty. And if this sounds kitschy or affected, it’s really not: the way that songs like ‘Kisses For The Misses’ roll along on sprightly piano lines while Swift yowls mournfully over the top will cut you to the bone. Prepare to lose your heart to him.

Pat Long